Fallout: New-World Wanderer
by FalloutWanderer
Summary: A series of events centred around the the Wasteland 10 years after the second and final war with the Legion at Hoover Dam. Elder McNamara, the progressive leader of a Brotherhood of Steel faction, is determined to change their fate, no matter the consequences. However his mission to change events does not unravel as planned, but instead he receives an echo of humanity long lost.
1. Chapters 1 & 2: Through The Looking Glas

_These series of events are centred on the Brotherhood of Steel, NCR, and the Wasteland ten years after the second and final war with the Legion at Hoover Dam. The situation is dire for everyone, even those in high positions that could bargain their way out of drought, disease, and radiation stricken land. The incessant feuds with different factions and the war on the dam took a lot out of the people of the Republic and the Brotherhood, and it took a lot of brave and intelligent men and women out of the equation, leaving resource stricken survivors to pick up the pieces._

 _Elder McNamara, the most progressive leader of a Brotherhood of Steel faction, is determined to change their fate, no matter the consequences. He would risk his status, his standing with his faction, his life…to attempt to change the fate of the human race. But to do that, he needs to break away from the Brotherhood and chart out a new path._

 **Chapter 1: What was done, cannot be undone**

Elder McNamara stood on a precipice overlooking the remains of the University of California Berkeley, his armor glinting in the hot summer sun beating down on scorched land and shielding him from most of the radiation caused by the Great War that had contaminated the earth and turned a once thriving city into a wasteland. He wondered what this place was like back in the day. If it wasn't for the war, would this place still exist, bustling with university students celebrating their end of term exams? Getting ready to go home and see their families again. It was so quiet he could almost hear the ghostly chatter of those lost souls. Despite the heat, he felt a cold shiver down his spine. But he wasn't here to wonder, he was here to try to do the impossible – change history.

His small group of Paladins and Scribes, all in their own protective armor, were ferrying scientific instruments out of the Vertibird, along with weapons to fight off the ghouls. Scribe Ibsen made his way to the Elder to provide him with a report for the mission.

"Elder, we have unloaded all the equipment we will need for the mission. The Paladins have collected their gear and the Scribes are ready to embark. But I have to ask sir…are you sure you want to do this?" asked Ibsen

After a last thoughtful pause, the Elder turned to the Scribe and replied assertively "I have made my decision. Make sure to carry out my orders to the letter. We only get one chance at this…we must undo the damage."

Scribe Ibsen lowered his head and nodded his acknowledgement.

McNamara signaled his small party of 6 to get ready to move out. The Vertibird pilot and a Paladin were left to guard their transport. The Elder picked up his heavy machine gun and lead the party down the sloping crater to the rubble that was once the University, dust trailing behind them.

They were running against time. It wouldn't be long before other Brotherhood of Steel groups arrived to try to stop them. McNamara ordered his pilot and Paladin guard to immediately surrender if the others arrived before their mission was complete. He would accept full responsibility for these actions. Which meant certain exile from the Brotherhood at best, an execution by firing squad at worst. He was willing to take his chances though, because if he succeeded on this day, he will have changed the entire course of history for humanity. Maybe even stopped the war. But to do that he needed the particle collider and its experimental equipment that was buried under tonnes of rubble and decay to send his warning into the past.

 _'This has to work….God I hope I am not wrong'_ he thought.

"Sir, we have reached the entrance" announced Scribe Ibsen just behind him. He was studying the map he made back when he was a young scribe and had investigated this site almost 20 years ago. Many things could have changed in that time. The entrance was buried under 2 feet of cement and steel rubble. They had to dig their way through

"All right, today's the day" said McNamara, picking up a pickax, "let's dig…".

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Through the looking glass**

June 7th 2017

' _Today's the day'_ thought Maya as she collected her research data and personal log books. She was finally about to run her full experiment with the particle collider, and she was expecting to obtain some interesting results. Leaving her office she made her way to the particle collider lab under the university. The campus was buzzing with chatter and laughter from students who had just finished their exams. The relief and happiness of finishing another, hopefully successful, year was palpable in the air. Nostalgia hit her as she remembered finishing her PhD and celebrating with her friends and colleagues almost 3 years ago to the day. She sometimes longed for the days when all she had to worry about were exams and coursework, it all seems much simpler back then.

Maya made her way down the stairs, the particle collider was located underground beneath the university. Weaving her way past the crowd of boisterous graduates she relished the thought of having a virtually empty campus over the summer holidays and no restrictions to amount of lab time use that would be available.

Reaching the ground level she headed for the elevator that was only used by researchers which went straight down to the particle collider lab. Maya swiped her ID card and the elevator doors opened.

"Maya! Hold up!" came a familiar shout from the crowd of graduates. It was Daniel, her best friend and fellow engineer. Maya held the elevator for them both, an amused look on her face as she watched him try to squeeze through crowds of students who were too excited about finishing and couldn't care less if someone was busy or needed to get somewhere.

"Thanks! Whoa….I'm going to be glad when these grads finally get out of here" he commented as they both got in the elevator.

"Yeah, but a part of you will miss it you gotta admit" Maya responded.

"The only thing I'll miss are the cute new graduates who show up at my office and want help with their engineering lab work" he smirked.

"Really?!" said Maya feigning incredulity, "and may I ask how many of these lovely ladies have you asked out?"

Daniel's ears turned red, followed by his neck. He was embarrassed but tried to brush it off

"Oh…well…I haven't quite…gotten round to that" He stammered. Daniel was a shy person who didn't interact with many individuals in the university, except for his supervisor, a few technicians, and Maya…who happened to be the only female in the university he could speak with freely without stuttering and making incoherent sentences. He was a reasonably attractive young man of 28 years, light ash brown hair, blue eyes with wayfarer style glasses, all which earned him flirty stares from time to time.

Maya smiled widely, "Don't worry Danny" she gently elbowed his arm, "you'll find the right person someday".

Daniel smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I just wish I wasn't so...awkward with...people"

"You're not with me" replied Maya

"That's because you're my best friend since pre-school. You're practically my adopted sister" said Daniel.

Their conversation was interrupted by the elevator's chime; they had reached the basement floor.

"I know it's difficult, especially when you're around someone you like" said Maya as they stepped out of the elevator and made their way to the lab room, "but try to think of it like you're talking with me. Easier said than done, I know, but if you keep at it it'll get easier".

"I guess you're right…" replied Daniel, walking slightly behind Maya.

"In the meantime, we have the final component for my experiment to install and test. I hope we don't break anything" she laughed nervously "Otherwise we'll get a very large bill through the mail!"

Just as she finished her sentence, the ground began to shake underneath her feet. The fluorescent lights hanging above them started to sway and flicker, and the window panes looking into the lab wobbled fiercely.

"What the hell?!" Cried Maya. Her feet were giving way to the unpredictable shaking of the floor underneath her. Daniel grabbed her arm and pulled her underneath a door frame.

The shaking stopped after a few seconds. Lights stopped flickering but carried on gently swaying. A few hairline cracks had formed on the ceiling and around door joints.

"It's ok, just an earthquake…I think" said Daniel. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just…shaken up a bit" she replied. "We better go to the lab and see if everything's ok"

They briskly made their way past a couple of stricken technicians who were busying themselves checking all the sensitive equipment and making sure no one was injured.

Daniel and Maya rushed through the door into the particle collider lab, which looked like it was the least affected room.

Dr. Gerrard Buser was hurriedly instructing a group of technicians on their tasks. The lead technician and researcher at the collider lab he was an attractively lithe man in his late 50s with an impressive set of thick white hair, piercing green eyes behind black rimmed glasses and Swiss accent. He turned to Daniel and Maya at the sound of the door slamming shut behind them.

"Glad you're here, we have problems with a connection junction. Some of them have de-aligned and need to be fixed immediately. We haven't been able to shut down all the equipment, we don't know why yet but we have think it's because of that junction" He turned to Maya, his green eyes stern yet apologetic; "I'm afraid we won't be able to install your equipment today, at least not until we have assessed the situation with the collider".

"I understand Dr. Buser, we'll begin immediately" Maya nodded, slightly annoyed that this incident will cause delays for her research work. They made their way to the changing room to get into appropriate gear to enter the chamber.

"Be careful" he called after them.

Maya and Daniel got into their laboratory gear and began the tedious task of checking all the systems and analyzing the damage. Somehow Maya couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't going to be the last incident she'll have to deal with today.


	2. Chapter 3: Ain't That A Kick In The Head

Chapter 3: Descent

"We're through the debris, I can see the access door of the elevator" called Paladin Ramos.

"Good, let's begin the climb down" McNamara said as he looked up "We don't have much time". Daylight was quickly fading behind thick green-brown radiation clouds. Flashes could be seen in the distance. The last thing they needed was irradiated rain.

McNamara couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. The area was secure, the scout reports came back negative for any settlements of raiders or other factions in the vicinity. Apart from some wandering mindless ghouls that could be handled quietly they were alone. Still, he felt unnerved. Perhaps the eyes of history were watching. Or maybe he was just being paranoid.

The elevator doors let of a shrill screech then a long deep moan as they were being pried open by two Paladins. Scribe Ibsen shuddered and muttered a profanity under his breath. No doubt that if there was anything around, human, ghoul or worse, they would have heard that noise.

"Everyone buckle up" said Paladin Ramos, handing everyone a specially reinforced climbing rope strong enough to resist snapping under the immense weight of Brotherhood armor and their equipment. Paladin Sato removed a high power winch from a crate, drilled it into the concrete floor with a pneumatic drill then attached his climbing line.

Everyone followed suit with their leads and one by one began their descent.

The Elder was the last to make the descent. Before he made his way to join his group he made another sweep of the surrounding area and radioed the pilot to let them know they will be out of communication range for a short time.

"Sir, we are reading 7 incoming aircraft on our long range radar coming toward our position. They are estimated to arrive within two hours"

It was as he feared: the Brotherhood was not going to allow him to carry out his mission so easily. They must have determined that the false mission briefing he supplied was a smoke trail and found out what the real mission objective was by now.

"Understood. Maintain radio silence until we give you the signal. If they arrive before we do, you are to surrender your weapons and inform them that you were following my instructions without full knowledge of the mission. Copy?"

"But, sir…" protested the pilot

"Do you copy, pilot?"

"Yes sir. Understood. We will carry out your orders"

"Good. Elder out", replied McNamara.

With that he attached his wire and made his descent.

There was no power in the basement. The group turned on their helmet lights and made their way down the corridor, following the much faded signs to the particle collider lab. Shards of glass from shattered pictures and display cases were scattered everywhere, making it appear as if the floor was covered in precious sparkling gems, crunching and turning into dust under their feet. But otherwise the corridors were remarkably clean, not even a loose sheet of paper on the floor.

They were several dozen meters underground with the radiation down here significantly less, allowing them to remove their heavy helmets and look around freely.

"Alright, we make this quick" announced McNamara. "We have 7 aircraft bearing down on our position, and less than 2 hours before they are upon us. I plan on being long gone from here before they arrive"

Everyone picked up the pace. They made their way into the particle collider lab. There were several skeletons strewn on the floor, perhaps some dedicated technicians working late when the bombs fell. The group respectfully tried to avoid disturbing the remains.

They forced their way through the secure door leading into the particle collider. No one would have disturbed this section of the lab since the bombs dropped, it had been restricted to only the engineers who were responsible for maintaining the equipment.

"Set up the device there" pointed Scribe Ibsen, next to one of the junctions with a terminal and particle feed line.

The Scribes and Paladins busied themselves to set everything up. The device they were carrying with them was a prototype singularity generator – the very first of its kind and highly unpredictable. The last test that the Brotherhood carried out almost blew up their entire main science facility. Reinforced power and particle cables were attached to the collider, a generator with several fusion cores was set up to power the lab, their computers and measurement equipment. In less than half an hour they were ready to attempt the unimaginable.

"Elder, we're ready to attempt contact."

"Great work, calibrate the device with the quantum signature I gave you, it will send the message to the 21st of October 2077"

"But sir, that only gives them 2 days"

"It's enough time to warn the people and to stop the war. Trust me, the people we are sending this to will make sure of that"

Ibsen nodded and carried out his orders as instructed. He turned on the singularity device and it hummed to life.

"Done" replied Ibsen.

"Execute" instructed the Elder, and with the touch of a button the collider activated and filled the chamber with a deep rumble.

Everything was going according to plan.

"The message has been sent to the given quantum signature Elder, they should have received it" yelled Ibsen over the loud noise of the collider.

"If that is true, why are we still here? …It should all have changed!" replied McNamara.

All of a sudden the floor beneath their feet began to shake, the shards of glass were dancing on the floor.

"What the hell is going on?!" yelled McNamara.

"I don't know sir! We are picking up strange readings from the singularity device" Ibsen shouted.

McNamara braced himself against the wall and put his helmet back on then instructed his group to do the same and secure themselves in case the above levels collapsed on them. If they did, that would be the end of this mission, and he will never know if they had succeeded.

"It's okay! It's leveling off" cried Ibsen as the collider began stabilizing.

"Try sending the message again Ibsen. Send the contingency message as well to the same quantum signature"

"Yes sir" acknowledged Ibsen.

 _'Why didn't it work?'_ Thought McNamara. ' _Could they not have received the message? Was I wrong about this? Or was it possible that they simply chose to ignore it?'_

Another 15 minutes went by and nothing changed. Ibsen had been sending the message on a loop continuously, yet there were no changes to their timeline.

Ibsen sat in disbelief and thought outloud "Might it be possible that they chose not to heed our warning?"

McNamara heard him and look of disbelief and fear spread over his face.

"If they chose not to acknowledge our message….then they have doomed the entire planet. No! I refuse to believe that they would intentionally do that after the information we relayed"

All of a sudden a huge force rocked the room, as if it moved of its own free will. The collider roared violently and streaks of white and yellow light appeared inside the collider tubes through a small glass viewing aperture.

"Impossible!" exclaimed Ibsen, shocked at the events that were unfolding.

"What's going on?!" Yelled McNamara, but Ibsen was too horrified to speak.

"There's…something…inside the collider…"


	3. Chapter 4: The Brotherhood

_2017_

"I'm just saying it was a little weird that this all happened on the day I was supposed to conduct my experiment. It's like my PhD all over again" said Maya as they were re-aligning the affected junction.

"No it's not, you're just choosing to find patterns among the chaos to blame something…or someone…when there's really NO one to blame but incredibly rotten luck" replied Daniel. He could see Maya was furious.

"No Danny, I've worked on this for well over 2 years now, almost 4 if you include all the research I've done and calculations carried out. And for what? Wasted away because of some…'rotten luck'" she retorted.

The funny thing was this research was her pet project during her PhD work, which was completely unrelated to her project work. She was studying quantum signatures and attempting to introduce entangled particles into the stream to observe the effects. Her supervisor laughed off her wild ideas – one of which was sending messages across time – as mere nonsense. And it probably, in fact, was. But this was still her idea and she wanted to test it out.

"It's going to take months before we get approval to use the collider again. Everyone's going to want to do tests and calibration to determine how this has all affected the equipment. We'll be so backlogged we won't even have a chance to test the equipment…"

Daniel stopped for a moment and looked intently at Maya.

"Maya, where is your device?" he asked.

"It's in the adjacent lab….where it'll probably stay until the end of time" replied Maya.

"Be right back!" he said, dropping his tools and hurriedly made his way out of the chamber room, exiting the lab.

 _'No….surely he's not thinking what I think he's thinking?'_ Maya deliberated.

She didn't have to wait long though, because within a few minutes Daniel had walked back into the collider lab, with her device in hand. She smiled as Dr. Buser examined Daniel quizzically, tried to stop him, then dropped his shoulder's slightly in surrender, and waved him back into the lab.

"I can't believe you! What did he say?" asked Maya.

"Oh you know, the 'try not to break it anymore than it already is' talk" replied Daniel.

"Besides, they couldn't turn the collider off for some reason, they're still trying to figure out what's going on. So I thought we may as well exploit this bad luck and turn it into something good"

"Yeah, but…this could give me false data" replied Maya.

"It's your choice Maya, do we attempt to do this, or wait however many months it takes for the team up there to fix it?"

After a thoughtful pause, Maya decided to go ahead with the test. She attached the device to one of the control panels in a junction, and set up the parameters.

"You two" Maya heard Dr. Buser's voice booming from a nearby speaker, "we've discovered some anomalies with the collider. Maybe best you delay this test until we figure out what's going on"

"What sort of anomalies?" Asked Maya

She heard a sigh from Dr. Buser, he then proceeded hesitantly to describe the readings they were receiving on their equipment "we…appear to be picking up Morse code…coming from inside the particle collider"

Maya stopped what she was doing, an expression of disbelief on her face as she turned to Daniel

"What?!"

"This is by no means a definitive answer, it needs to be confirmed by others. We didn't know what this was before, we thought it was just chaotic noise caused by disruption from the earthquake. But it's not, there is a predictable pattern, and it's on a repeat" replied Dr. Buser.

 _'That can't be'_ Maya thought

"When did this start?" she inquired

"After the earthquake, but it has intensified just after you installed your device" replied Dr. Buser, "We should consider doing a manual shut down of the device, now!"

And then, just as it happened in the corridor, another earthquake struck. Only this time it felt like the floor was being pulled apart.

"It's happening again!" cried Daniel

The noise was almost deafening, it sounded like a train going at full speed

"Aftershock most likely, hold on!" Maya yelled above the noise. Daniel managed to secure himself under a table, but Maya was thrown hard onto the collider.

"Maya! Get down!" cried Daniel

The air was knocked out of her lungs, Maya desperately clung to her device that was still firmly connected to the collider. She felt a pulsing heat and vibration coming from her device and immediately sensed that she was at risk.

"Maya!" yelled Daniel. She turned to see a look of horror on his face. He was looking at the device. Now panicking, she looked down to see the device was glowing. And all at once she felt a force so strong it pulled her into nothingness. She couldn't breathe, she could only see streaks of yellow and white light passing by her. There was no noise, only light. The last thing she saw before being pulled in was Daniel running to the control panel, reaching for her, then blinding light.

* * *

 _'I'm dead, I must be dead'_ she thought. But as soon as she thought that she started seeing stars in her eyes. And then the terrifying reality sunk in.

 _'No, I'm not dead, I'm suffocating!'_

Maya tried to inhale but nothing was going into her lungs. The light dimmed slightly and she could see figures moving behind the thick glass that was separating her from the air she desperately needed. And then, a shattering sound and air rushing in.

Someone…or something grabbed her arm and began pulling her out. The hand was cold and rigid, like it was made from metal.

* * *

"Move! Move!" yelled Ibsen as he put his helmet back on, grabbed a sledgehammer to try to shatter the view glass in the collider. But the glass only fractured slightly at the impact point, leaving most of it intact. They could hear a hissing sound as air started to seep into the chamber.

"They're still alive! Help me get them out!" he yelled to the Paladins as he grabbed the arm to check for a pulse.

"Stand aside" said Ramos. He picked up the sledgehammer and swung it on the connection junction to sever the metal tube. A few good hits and the seal broke, allowing air into the chamber and initiating the collider's fail safe stop. Another hit and the tube broke off, allowing them to pull the individual out.

"Oh my God…" whispered McNamara in amazement as he witnessed his paladins remove a woman out of the collider. She was dazed and confused…and wearing old world clothes.

 _Could it be they attempted to send us a representative from the past?!_ Thought McNamara. If they did, what did they attempt to accomplish? Were they trying to find out the truth before they stopped the war? And how do they expect them to send her back?

The woman looked shocked and terrified as she was pulled out of the machine.

Before McNamara had any time to think of any more possibilities as to the arrival of this stranger, he realized that the ground hadn't stopped vibrating since the second earthquake. He had to get them out of here, before the ceiling collapsed on them.

"Everyone, we need to move out NOW!" he roared.

"Wait!" called the woman, "who are you?! How did you get in here?! What…" it suddenly dawned on her…"What happened? Where's Daniel?!" she insisted. Everything around her had changed. It was as if the lab had gone through a series of earthquakes and aged at least half a century in the span of a few minutes. She had no explanation for what had just occurred, but she knew they were not safe in that room anymore.

"No time, we have to get out of here! The whole area is unstable and will crush us if we don't leave NOW!" said McNamara. He grabbed her by the arm and lead her and his team out of the chamber, through the hallway and back up the elevator shaft. Everyone made it out safely and just in the nick of time. The area was slowly crumbling inward as the floor was collapsing into the underground cavities. They moved a couple hundred meters away from their entry site. The collider was lost….they would have to find another one if they wanted to attempt contact again.

"What the hell is going on? Where am I?" the woman panted.

What she saw next made her jaw drop. Maya couldn't believe her eyes. She was on the surface, where the ground floor should have been. But instead she was surrounded by rubble, various debris, and the sky...the sky was green. _What the hell happened?_ thought Maya. This couldn't be the university that she knew...this must be a nightmare. She must have fainted, or knocked her head in the lab and this is a nightmare.

"I…I…feel…" she started to stumble. Without any protective armor on, every cell in her body was being contaminated by radiation.

"Here" McNamara took out a syringe of Rad-Away and moved to inject her. A look of terror crossed her face and she pulled away, "there's heavy radiation in this area, and you've been affected" he explained, "If you want to live, you will do as I say".

She didn't have the strength to argue, and reluctantly she allowed herself to be injected with the strange yellow liquid.

"What...happened? What do you mean there's radiation?" she asked hesitantly. The liquid coursing through her system would protect her from the radiation for a while, at least until they could get back to their vertibird.

McNamara looked her in the eyes and determined it would be best to offer her a sincere possible explanation. "We believe you came here from the old world, judging by your apparel" he said.

Maya just looked at him and shook her head. She didn't understand.

"The year is 2291, 200 years after the Great War. This area was bombarded with nuclear weapons, that is why it is contaminated with radiation" McNamara replied calmly.

"You mean...a-are you saying I... _traveled_ into the future?" she asked reluctantly, to which McNamara nodded.

"That's _not_ possible!" she insisted, "Time travel isn't possible!". She looked around her, at all the soldiers in armor who were standing over her and staring, and back to McNamara. The predicament of her situation was beginning to dawn on her.

"I...traveled...over 2 centuries into the future?" She asked. He nodded slowly and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm afraid so" he said, "we'll get you out of here soon, RadX and Rad-Away will only protect you for a short time".

McNamara turned on his radio to signal the pilot to start the engines so they could leave. No response…

"Pilot, do you read me?" repeated McNamara.

A few seconds of silence, and then he heard a familiar voice he was not expecting.

"Hello McNamara. It's been a long time." Came a steely voice from the handheld radio.

"We have your pilot and your Paladin guard here. Make your way to your Vertibird."

"Elder White" McNamara replied over the radio, "I wasn't expecting you here".

"I came by to make sure you weren't making a foolish mistake" came the cold voice from the radio. "Now come quietly, or I will have to use force"

"You've failed White, I have already carried out my mission" McNamara responded defiantly.

"I beg to differ..." replied Elder White.

A squadron of Paladin's in white armor appeared out of the debris and surrounded McNamara's group, guns aimed at their heads.

* * *

Maya's head was spinning. Whatever was in that vial was, it beginning to take effect, but it didn't make her feel any better. She clutched at the arm of one of the men in metal armor as she felt her body begin to shake. She couldn't make sense of what happened, not yet anyway. She had to rely on this group of people to get her to safety, wherever that was. She glanced around weary eyed trying to see where she was. Everything was foggy, as if she had developed myopia since getting out of the collider. Who knows what damage was caused to her body by being in there, and being in contact with her device.

Her device!

"Ah!" she cried.

"What is it?" the armoured soldier asked. From the tone of his voice, she couldn't tell if he was concerned or annoyed, the metal mask prevented her from seeing his face. All she could see was her reflection in the mirror-like glass eye panels of his helmet. From the looks of things, she was in trouble.

"My side…." Gasped Maya. She reached around her left side and sure enough just underneath her floating rib was a deep puncture, probably caused during the second earthquake when she was slammed into her device. A warm liquid drenched her hand. She was bleeding, badly.

"Hang on, we'll get you help" the soldier replied softly, "We need a medic here!"

Another man in armour knelt next to them while the first was holding Maya up. Bandages, some vials of what appeared to be sterilisation liquid and medicine, and more needles. He sprayed a cool liquid onto her wound. It was numbing the area. Then he took out a sterile plastic container with a large syringe, needle, and what appeared to be a gas pressure gauge attached at the end.

"What….what are you doing with that?!" She demanded, but she could barely hold her own weight up let alone make a run for it.

"Take it easy, I'm just going to give you a stimpak"

"No! Get away from me!" she said, attempting to free herself from the first soldier's grasp.

"Hold her still!" the second soldier insisted.

It was then that everything seemed to go in slow motion. Maya managed to catch a glimpse of other soldiers in white armour surrounding them before she fell unconscious.

* * *

 ** _***Two days later…***_**

Maya woke groggily to the sound of gentle electric humming. Slowly as she regained consciousness, her head began swimming with images from what had happened before she drifted. Where was she, what happened? Concerned, she began trying to force herself to sit up as the memories began coming back. She tried to get up but the pain in her side shot through her entire body. Trying to reach over to feel her wound, Maya found she couldn't move her arms past her hip. It was then that she saw her arms and legs were restrained by harnesses tying her to the bed. Her vision was back too, she could see everything clearly.

Frantically she scanned the room. The walls were all cement with some exposed steel beams in the corners, a heavy steel door without a latch or handle, and what appeared to be a mirror running the entire length of one wall. But Maya had a suspicion that that was definitely not a mirror.

This had to be an observation room.

Before she had a chance to try to wriggle her way out of the restraints, she heard the door being opened from the other side and she stared at the door. Petrified of the thought of who her captors were, she froze in her bed.

A man dressed in full yellow hazmat gear walked through the door with two colleagues. As soon as he saw her he stretched out a hand to reassure her that they weren't there to harm her.

"It's okay, you won't be harmed, we're here to help you"

"Where am I?" Maya tried to say, but her words sounded hollow and raspy. She hadn't noticed that her throat was so parched she could barely speak.

"Here…" said the man, placing a glass of clear liquid gently in her hands. Maya looked at the container and then up at him sceptically.

"It's just water, I promise. I'm a doctor, I won't hurt you" he re-assured her.

Maya savoured every gulp of water, it was as if she could feel the refreshing coolness hydrating every cell in her body.

"Slowly now" said the doctor with some concern in his voice, "you haven't had a proper drink of water since we brought you here, we've had to administer IV drips"

"W-when….how long…" Maya found her voice after finishing her drink, handing the glass back to the doctor.

"A little over 2 days ago. You were brought in with another group of Paladins, who claim to have rescued you from inside a particle collider" he almost laughed as he finished his sentence, as though he didn't believe the story himself. She could see smile lines behind his hazmat mask.

"Yes" stated Maya matter-of-factly. The doctor's smile appeared to slowly fade.

"Yes…you were…inside a particle collider? Or yes you were saved from the wastes?"

"The wastes? What? No, I was in the collider." Replied Maya

The words seemed to finally register with the doctor. His expression turned to worry.

"But…that's not possible" he stated, "no one has been to that site in decades…"

"What are you talking about?! I was just there! I was surrounded by my friends and colleagues and….and then I was running an experiment in the particle collider chamber with my best friend Daniel…" then it dawned on her. Daniel!

"Where's Daniel?! Please tell me is he safe! What happened?! Where am I?!" Panic was almost suffocating her, adrenaline was coursing through her veins like fire. She had to find Danny and make sure he was okay. What if he was stuck in the collider as well with no one to help him? Oh God….Danny…

"Sedative please!" yelled the doctor to his colleague.

"NO! No please don't make me sleep! I need to find Daniel!" Maya pleaded, but to no avail. She felt a sharp sting in her arm and found herself drifting into the darkness.

* * *

Two days had passed since their mission, and there was no sign of change. McNamara felt a heavy weight in his heart, knowing that the mission to change the outcome of their future had failed….that HE had failed…

After his group was apprehended, they were all split up, bags placed over their heads to prevent them from seeing where they were going, and transferred to a separate Brotherhood stronghold bunker for interrogation. He wasn't allowed rest, was denied food and water, hadn't seen or heard his group in over 48 hours, in what was clearly an attempt by his captors to break him. He couldn't let that happen, not to him….not after all that he has been through after HELIOS 1, the courier, and the battle at Hoover Dam.

He was worried about his group, and those he left behind in the bunker in Hidden Valley. No doubt that Harding usurped his authority and declared himself Elder once the news of McNamara's capture reached his ears.

' _No way to go back now'_ thought McNamara, feeling a lump in his throat. A part of him regretted carrying out the mission with such duplicity towards the Brotherhood, especially after that mission failed and resulted in the capture of everyone…including the stranger out of time.

 _'That's it! She must be the key'_ He thought. McNamara allowed some hope to fill him and began busying his mind on a way to escape the bunker.

* * *

Hardin read the urgent communiqué on his terminal. It wrote:

" _Head Paladin Hardin,_

 _We have apprehended the Elder responsible for the Hidden Valley bunker. We inform you that Elder White is en route to your location to determine the extent of the insurgence under McNamara and your rule, and to carry out a full investigation on your group's activities. You are to report to the Elder upon his arrival at 0400 and relinquish your weapons, power armor, and position until further notice. We demand full co-operation from yourself and your group. Immediate exile from the Brotherhood of Steel will be issued for any and all failing to adhere to the investigation procedures and/or Elder White's orders._

 _The Brotherhood Council_ "

Hardin's stern expression didn't waver, he would dutifully carry out the orders he was given by the council without question. However, he was insulted by the insinuation that he had anything to do with any of McNamara's fantasy missions. Not after his attempt to usurp his power was revealed by Courier Six a decade ago. He still didn't regain McNamara's trust after that, and he doubted that would ever change after what had recently happened.

'Well McNamara, it would appear your progressive thinking has failed you now' thought Hardin to himself, although there was no glee in that thought. At best, McNamara would be exiled from the Brotherhood for his actions. At worst…he would face execution by firing squad. And that is not something Hardin wished for him. They may have butted heads and not seen eye-to-eye, but Hardin had great respect for the Elder. If it wasn't for him, their group would have been wiped out at Helios.

Hardin just had to wait and see what would happen. He would follow the orders of the council, for now. But he still had time until 0400 tomorrow to make any emergency arrangements before Elder White arrived and locked down the bunker.

* * *

"Wake her" demanded Elder White.

Maya was slumped in a metal chair that was bolted to the floor. Her arms, legs, and waist strapped tightly to its cold frame.

A Paladin in white armor picked up a bucket of ice cold water and slowly decanted it over Maya's head, sending a wave of shock and terror through her. She thought she was drowning…

"Come now, isn't that better?" Elder White asked coldly, an expression of sadistic amusement escaping his gaunt features.

Maya gasped for air and was desperately looking around confused. Her eyes caught the sordid expression on the Elder's face, and her confusion and fear turned to anger. She immediately had an instinctual distaste for this man.

"Why am I here?" she demanded, gazing directly into his pale grey eyes. They reminded her of eyes that were always that kind of pale, deathly grey in the majority of zombie movies she had seen.

Elder White grinned, bemused by this little woman's defiance. He would make sure to crush it and make her watch as he does.

"I was going to ask you that very same question" he smiled and moved closer to Maya, "What's your name?"

Maya refused to look at him, instead she turned her head to the side in an attempt to show she was ignoring him. But that was a mistake.

He grabbed her long damp brown hair and yanked her head back. Maya couldn't help but let out a yelp of pain, her face contorted in a grimace trying to hold back tears as she felt her neck being pulled taught.

Elder White was savoring this moment. He wasn't your typical Brotherhood of Steel soldier, his job was to do the hard work for the council – the work that no one wanted to do for fear of compromising their morals. But White had buried his morals a long time ago. All that was left was his obedience to the council.

"What. Is. Your. Name?" He asked once again.

"….Maya" she gasped. White let go of her hair and watched the pain on her face slowly fade as her neck was allowed to go back to its natural position.

"There. That wasn't difficult" he stated, satisfied with himself. ' _Maybe I will turn her into a pet'_ he mused to himself. Maybe even put a collar on her neck….make it bulge slightly around the sides so she doesn't forget who the master is…

"So, Maya…what were you doing down at the old University with the other Paladins?" he pursued, looking her up and down, "A...woman like yourself with no power armor….in the middle of a site flooded with radiation... That. Is. Suspicious. Don't you think?" he dragged the question out, as if he was working out possible answers, facing away from her while walking around the room in a circle.

At this point, Maya realized she was stuck in a room, possibly underground, with a psychopath. She was in serious danger.

She shivered from fear and the cold water that had drenched her completely. Pleadingly she looked at the other soldier in the room, her eyes begging to be let go. White noticed that look and knew he was about to crush her. He swooped towards her and placed his hands on the arms of her chair.

"Ah-ah-ah, nobody in here will help you" he grinned, "But…..maybe….he can". White motioned to the door while maintaining eye contact with Maya. She heard a latch open and the door flung inwards, a man with brilliant white hair and brown eyes was pushed inside before the door closed and locked again.

"Do you know this man?" Demanded White.

McNamara met Maya's gaze but made sure not to reveal anything he felt. He knew White would pounce on a single twitch, but he also knew that ignoring White would infuriate him even more. As long as White's attention was on him, she was safe.

Maya looked at the man for a second and realized that it must have been one of the soldiers that had been there in the particle collider room. But she could not admit that.

"No" Maya answered honestly, meeting White's cold gaze.

"No…." White repeated answer in a whisper almost.

He straightened himself up slowly and turned to McNamara.

"…No…" White circled McNamara.

In a swift movement, White kicked McNamara behind his right knee, making him fall hard on all fours with a groan. He grabbed hold of McNamara's hair and pulled his head back just as he did to Maya. Maya screamed for help, but no one came, she yelled for him to let them go, but that only made White laugh menacingly. He pulled out a knife from under his armor and brandished it in front of McNamara's neck.

"NO! Please! Don't hurt him! I'll tell you anything you want! Just leave him alone" Maya pleaded.

White had won and he knew it. He lifted his gaze up slowly to meet hers.

"I can't wait to hear all about it my dear" he sneered.


	4. Chapter 5: 2013 vs 2291

**_2017_**

 _"Stop bullshitting" laughed Maya._

 _"If you think about it you'll realise my theory is sound, and yours is just implausible" Daniel replied confidently._

 _Debating time travel has become a reoccurring topic for discussion between Maya and Daniel over lunch time. They were sitting by themselves at a table in the University's cafeteria. They were probably the most dedicated and pedantic nerds in the faculty. Which is probably the main reason why none of their other colleagues and friends bothered to sit with them during lunch, lest they be dragged into one of their debates._

 _"You do realise we're talking about time travel, right?" Maya reminded him, "And you're saying that you don't think that there are parallel universes. That there's only this universe in this time, and that if you go back in time or send a message back it just goes back through our timeline. If you send a person back in time, for example you, then with your theory there will be two copies of you: a younger you, and…well…YOU" said Maya, "That is ridiculous. You've created a paradox in the universe now" she sniggered._

 _"Oh yeah, and like the theory you're backing makes more sense than mine" Daniel scoffed._

 _"Well, I'm not saying that it makes perfect sense as all time travelling theories are just theories and therefore incomplete. But…. yeah I am saying that it makes more sense than your theory" she rebutted, "You run minimal risk of travelling through time if you include parallel universes, you don't risk 'contaminating' the timeline with your actions, and you are basically free to contaminate that timeline as much as you want without fear of your timeline changing" Maya stated._

 _"I am not even going to bother with a reply to that" Daniel shrugged, still looking rather confident with his theory._

 _"That's okay, because I'll prove you wrong" said Maya._

 _"Ha! I'd like to see that happen" said Daniel, waving her away._

 _"Wanna bet?" Maya asked eagerly as she leaned over the cafeteria table to make sure Daniel could hear every word over the noise, "Because I've been working on a pet project theory in my spare time and I think if I can entangle two particles on a quantum level, I can take the first step in proving that parallel universes exist" she smiled excitedly._

 _Daniel looked sceptical._

 _"But how are you going to know if you have succeeded?" he asked._

 _"Well, when you quantum entangle two particles, even if they are separated by a great distance, what happens to one of the particles will also happen to the other" replied Maya, "even if they are separated by time, when one is affected, the other will be as well"._

 _"That sounds interesting" commented Daniel thoughtfully, "but how are you going to prove that parallel universes exist?"_

 _"I will use the particle collider" said Maya, "I will place one of the entangled particles in the collider and the other will remain in a sealed stasis container that I will have to figure out how to make."_

 _Daniel grinned and leaned in as well._

 _"Need some help from an expert in physics?" he goaded her playfully._

 _Maya smiled widely._

 _"Do you know a guy?" she joked._

* * *

 _ **2291**_

Maya took a minute to recover her composure and determine the exact explanation she was going to use.

Struggling to find the correct words, she stammered "My…name is Maya…I'm an engineer for…"

"The Brotherhood?" asked White, attempting to finish her sentences.

Maya felt puzzled, but she realized that he must be referring to the group she was with. She nodded in agreement.

"I see. And how come I have never heard of you" asked White, still brandishing the knife in front of McNamara.

"I uh…don't understand" Maya said puzzled, wondering if all engineers are _known_ somehow in this time.

"There is no mention of a Maya in the Hidden Valley bunker" White stated flatly. He was studying her to determine why she was lying.

"I'm not from there" she said firmly, "and I don't know this man kneeling in front of me".

"Then where are you from Maya? Or should I say, _when_ are you from?" White asked directly.

Maya was caught off guard and hesitated, uncertain of how to proceed and reluctant to confirm that she was a person who was out of time. She looked at McNamara but his eyes were firmly focusing on the floor in front of him, his face expressionless. She felt helpless against the onslaught of questions…

"A lone wanderer in the middle of a heavily irradiated site…in the company of heavily armored Paladins and Scribes." Mused White, "It is odd that you were in their company, being that you are not part of the Brotherhood" he stated confidently.

Maya stayed silent. _'Better to keep quiet than to reveal something that he could use against me'_ thought Maya.

With a frustrated sigh, White roughly released McNamara from his grip and straightened his posture. He was slightly amused at her silence, but he knew given time she would tell him everything he asked her. He looked down at her and met her distasteful gaze, and couldn't help but reveal a slight sneer.

"So you choose to be silent. I can respect that…" he said not breaking his gaze away from hers. "However, you cannot remain silent forever" he said ominously.

White took a few steps away from McNamara and stood with his back to them.

"You have 72 hours to make your decision" he said.

Maya glared at him.

"Or what?" she asked.

White turned around to face them, a sinister expression of malice and amusement on his face.

He shrugged and said, "You'll find that out in 72 hours, darling".

The door groaned and opened, allowing White and his Paladin to walk out. Maya caught a brief glimpse before the door closed behind him of half a dozen Paladins outside and another man in a robe, a stern expression fixated on White. Maya and McNamara were locked alone in the interrogation room. She didn't know whether to be relieved or to worried for what was to come next.

"Are you okay?" she turned to McNamara.

McNamara relaxed slightly, "Fine….thank you" he replied as he sat on the floor resting one arm on his bent knee and his back on the cold concrete wall. He grimaced and exhaled slowly as he tried to find a comfortable position. Maya noticed that he was favoring his left side, but she didn't want to ask, worried that might cause him more discomfort to talk about it.

McNamara caught her concerned gaze and decided to ease her worry.

"Don't worry" he said, "we'll get them back for this. I'll make sure of it".

McNamara and Maya sat in the interrogation room for a few minutes in silence, recollecting their composure and thoughts.

Maya decided to break the awkward silence.

"I never caught your name" she said.

"El-..." McNamara started, then remembered that his Brotherhood title has been rescinded, "Nolan…my name is Nolan"

"Thank you, Nolan" said Maya.

McNamara raised an eyebrow. "For what?" he asked.

"For saving my life. If you hadn't been there in the lab, I would have suffocated to death" said Maya, smiling gratefully.

McNamara looked up at her. For some reason she was smiling at him. It was contagious. Even though they were in a dire situation, he felt his expression soften and he reciprocated a small smile back. Deep down though, he felt the first grip of regret: she was here because of _him,_ her life was...IS...in danger because of him. A sadness came over him, but he forced himself to keep the positive exterior expression, for her sake.

"You're welcome...Maya. I am just happy we got you out of there in time" he said.  
 _'Liar'_ he thought to himself, _'tell her the truth! She will find out'_

Maya looked around them, wondering what they are going to do...how they are going to get out. There was no way out, at least not from the inside of the room.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Now..." said McNamara thoughtfully, "...Now we get out of here".

He got up and started working on freeing Maya from the interrogation chair. Just as he began unfastening the restraints on her legs, the power and lights went out and the base's booming alarm was initiated...


	5. Chapter 6: I'll Fly Away

The alarm was deafening in the interrogation room. McNamara got back up on his feet and braced himself for what was next to come. He could barely hear what going on outside….until a faint smell of burning metal reached his nose. Quickly he realized that someone must be trying to get through the door and untied Maya from her chair. _'Could it be just another trap to get us to talk?'_ he thought.

"Quick, get behind me" he commanded Maya as he took up a fighting stance, his arms up and fists at the ready. Maya disregarded his command and took up a fighting stance next to him, trying to copy his arm and foot placement as she had never had any combat or self-defence training.

McNamara looked slightly annoyed at her, "you have no combat experience, get behind me" he re-iterated.

"No, we're facing whatever comes through that door together" she said, mustering all her confidence. At that, McNamara's expression changed. He was used to being a leader and having those under his protection obey his commands. However, Maya's willingness to put herself possibly in harm's way to help him fight off their enemies made him admire her. Even though she did not have combat training, she could still fight back. _'She would make a fine member of the Brotherhood'_ he thought to himself.

They heard a faint sizzle coming from the door, and a dull red glow began to appear in the middle. Someone was trying to cut their way in!

Then in a great display of glowing yellow and white sparks, the metal melted away where the red light once was and they could see flashing red emergency light from the other side. A familiar face appeared in the aperture.

"Ibsen!" cried McNamara, relieved. The door swung open and Ibsen walked in with 3 other Paladins.

"Elder! Are you okay?" he asked as he walked over to McNamara and Maya, looking them both up and down.

"We're fine, where are the others?" Asked McNamara, "And where….where is your armor?"

"They took everything, we were lucky to get these weapons from a few of the guards we took down" replied Ibsen, "It's not much, three plasma rifles, 1 12.7mm pistol, a marksman carbine, and a Bowie knife"

McNamara studied his Paladins and noticed that two of them were missing.

"Where's Ramos?" he asked.

Ibsen's expression turned sombre, "Paladin Ramos was severely tortured after we were captured. He's with Paladin Watkins, they're hidden, waiting for us nearby" Ibsen replied.

"How were you able to get out?" McNamara asked.

"When they returned Ramos after…his last interrogation…he wasn't well and began to convulse. I panicked and banged on the door for the Paladin guarding us to get some help. I didn't expect…" Ibsen caught his words before he faltered at the memory of what had just happened.

"…Go on" McNamara requested gently.

"..He uhh...the guard came in and…ordered me to back away. He pointed his plasma rifle at Ramos and I could see he was aiming at his head. He was going to kill Ramos….so I rammed into him and I guess the bastard wasn't expecting it because he dropped his rifle…so I took the shot"

McNamara's expression saddened. _'Is this what it's coming to now? A Brother trying to kill another Brother?'_ He placed a reassuring hand on Ibsen's shoulder and looked him in the eye. "You did what you had to do" he said. Ibsen nodded, "Yes Elder"

"Okay, lead the way out" McNamara said as one of his Paladin's gave him a rifle.

McNamara turned to Maya, gave her the Bowie knife and told her to stay close to the group.

"I'm not going to argue with you…this time" she promised.

They moved out and traversed through a maze of corridors and rooms, Maya couldn't keep track of it all. The flashing lights in the dark, the noise of men yelling and footsteps pounding was disorientating; but she tried to keep a mental note of all the hallways they passed.

"Stop stop" whispered Ibsen as they came to a halt just outside what looked like a supply room. Ibsen knocked three times on the door and Paladin Watkins opened to greet them.

"About time! We have to hurry, he's not doing well" she insisted.

The group hurriedly picked Ramos up, McNamara placing Ramos' left arm over his shoulder and signalled Maya to help him. She complied, placed his other arm around her shoulders and tried to offer additional support by placing her arm around his waist.

"Ah!" Ramos gasped in pain.

"His ribs must be broken" said another Paladin to Maya, "I'll lift his legs, we'll carry him that way".

Maya nodded and pulled her arm away from Ramos' side. His face was pained and he was trying to keep his head up, but even that looked like too much of an effort. "It's ok, you'll be okay, soon as we get out" she tried to reassure him. She felt a deep sadness for what had happened to him and wished there was more she could do.

With the wounded Paladin in their arms, they made their way as quickly as they could to try to get to the exit. They started climbing up a stairwell, but further up ahead they heard clear voices and the clang of metal armor boots on the grate floor.

"OVER HERE!" they heard a voice shout as a Paladin in white armour stood at the foot of the stairs and pointed at them.

'Shit!" muttered McNamara, "Go back!" he urged his group back down the stairwell.

They heard more footsteps behind them.

"Quick!" yelled Ibsen, "This way!"

He was leading them down another stairwell, deeper into the bunker.

"Ibsen! We're trying to get OUT of here, not further in" McNamara yelled.

"And we WILL! There's an underground Vertibird facility further this way" he yelled back, "if we hurry, we can make it".

 _'Finally'_ McNamara thought _'we just might make it out of here alive'._

They made their way down the stairs; Watkins and another Paladin disabled two guards who were unloading the last of the supplies from a Vertibird that must have landed earlier in the day.

"Okay, we're in business" McNamara said as he and Maya secured Ramos into the Vertibird.

"Not yet! We need to lock this door" said Ibsen, busying himself with the door's access panel. He by-passed the mechanical control for the door, sealed the door and disabled the panel from being accessed again on either side. "Got it" he informed them, turned around and jogged back to the Vertibird.

The pilot was starting up the engines of the great flying machine. Maya looked around for the hangar's exit hatch, but couldn't find it. She scanned the ceiling and in the middle of the hangar was what looked like it could be a hangar door. Maya turned to McNamara and asked, "Nolan, how are we going to open that hangar door?"

At the sound of McNamara's first name, Paladin Watkins and the pilot turned to face her with disapproving expressions, but with one look McNamara dispelled their gazes.

"There must be a control panel somewhere to access hangar door controls" he looked around the hangar.

"There!" pointed Maya, "could that be it?"

Before McNamara could respond affirmatively, Maya jumped out of the Vertibird and ran for the controls. She could hear McNamara yelling after her but couldn't discern his message over the sound of shots being fired from energy weapons. A great ball of light flashed past her head. She realised with dread that the enemy soldiers gained access on the upper level of the hangar bay. As she looked up, she saw one soldier aiming right for her, but she dared not stop. Instead, she ran for cover under some of the metal shipment containers. Another two shots flew past her, this time so close she could feel the searing heat of the energy "bullet" as it whizzed past. She slid under the container and ducked her head out of the line of fire.

 _*BANG*_ she heard a gun go off in the direction of the Vertibird, and the sound of a heavy metal object hitting hard concrete. She looked over to the group and saw McNamara was kneeling on one leg with a rifle pointed in the direction of where the enemy was. Their eyes met and she nodded in thanks.

The high pitched whirr of the Vertibird's engines signaled that they were ready to take off any second. Maya got to the control panel and frantically scanned the board, looking for anything that vaguely said what it was for. She noticed a long horizontal handle with a thrust lever, on the side _'Bay 5'_ was written in bold black military font.

"That must be it!" Maya gasped. As soon as the pushed it, alarms started to blare off. With a loud groan, the ceiling hangar doors slid open slowly.

With a satisfied grin, Maya ran back to the group. The Vertibird was gently hovering about a foot off the ground, McNamara reached his arm out and Maya took it.

"Go go go!" McNamara yelled over the sound of the propellers as he pulled Maya up into the Vertibird.

Maya felt a rush in her stomach as the great flying vehicle accelerated up and out of the hangar. It felt like being on a rollercoaster in the amusement parks. The giddy feeling sent a wave of numbing sadness through her as the thought of being stuck in this hellish nightmare crossed her mind. She was so strongly swept up by the feeling that she almost didn't notice the tight grip McNamara had around her waist to help keep her stable. The cold wind whipped at her face, making her eyes sting and tear up.

"Good work Maya" McNamara said in her ear so she could hear him better. She turned and looked at him. The way he looked at her, a cross of admiration and curiosity, made her feel somewhat comforted and brought a bit of her confidence back. She forced a slim smile in response and nodded.

"Thanks. And…thank you..for saving me back there" she replied.

"Anytime" McNamara smiled.

Maya looked out at the horizon. The sun had just risen, and the warm light was a welcome sight after their imprisonment in the bunker.

"What now?" she asked

"Now", McNamara followed her gaze, "we finish what we started"

Craig Boone was overlooking Cottonwood Cove alone in the shelter of the Sniper's Nest, binoculars pressed to his eyes, diligently scanning the area for any legion soldiers. There were no pickings tonight, there almost never are after the final Battle for Hoover Dam. Just a couple of raiders scavenging what was left from the Legion.  
It was almost dawn, the cold air rushing over the wastes bringing with it the scent of the lake up to the nest. This place was always a bitter reminder of what happened a little over ten years ago. But he always had a feeling he might see…someone…here again.

"Carla…" he spoke her name out loud. The name sounded almost hollow to him now after so many years spent trying to take vengeance on those who took her. He was able to find some respite over the Khan massacre he was part of at Bitter Springs when he went to Coyote Tail Ridge with Courier Six and stopped a Legion attack. But this place will always haunt him, always eat away inside until he is just a shell. There was only one way he could find respite over Carla, and that was to either carry on dispatching any Legion he came across….or bite a bullet himself.

The night was giving way to dawn. Boone put his binoculars away, allowing himself some time to rest and adjust his eyes heavy with fatigue to the coming daylight.

He put a pot of purified water on the campfire to boil for some coffee and sat down next to the fire. Years of traversing the Mojave wasteland was not kind to him. His back began to ache and, wincing, he decided to lay down on one of the sleeping rolls until the water boiled. But as he lay down, he felt his eyes grow heavy, and soon he was drifting off to into a dream.

* * *

 _The sound of water lapping the shores of Cottonwood Cove were disturbed by the marching of the Legion._

 _"Carla…" Boone whispered. He was looking through his sniper rifle's eye piece in the nest. But…things didn't feel right._

 _"Craig!" he heard a familiar voice behind him. His heart fluttered and his eyes widened._

 _"No…" he whispered, keeping his eyes on the Legion._

 _"Craig….look at me" the voice insisted. He felt a hand on his left shoulder. He closed his eyes, suppressing a sob. The radio was on, Johnny Guitar was playing._

 _He turned around and found Carla kneeling next to him. Tears started flowing from his eyes freely now._

 _"Carla?" he choked._

 _She just smiled and nodded, placing her soft hand on his wet cheek. "I'm here my love" she whispered._

 _Boone sat up and embraced his wife. But the realization sunk in._

 _"You're not real…this isn't real" he said, gently pulling away from her embrace._

 _She nodded and smiled, running her hand through his stubbly buzz cut hair pushing his beret off and took his sunglasses off with her other hand. He wished this was real…_

 _"My love, there's nothing left, they're all gone" she smiled sadly as she gazed into his eyes. He could see tears welling up in those beautiful blue eyes of hers…would their unborn son or daughter have had her eyes…the color of crystal clear blue waters on a summer day._

 _"What are you saying? I don't understand" Craig stammered._

 _"You have to go" she began, "you are lost, but you can be found…if you go"_

 _"Never!" gasped Boone, "I'm not going anywhere!"_

 _She let out a small sob, closed her eyes and tilted her head to the sound of the radio._

 _"Such a sad song…" she mused, opening her eyes._

 _Boone couldn't control himself anymore. He was sobbing with grief._

 _"It's…the last song I heard before I came here" he gasped between sobs, "I… ALWAYS…come back here"._

 _Carla looked at him sternly._

 _"Stop" she said, her eyes wide, tears dried and gone, an expression as if she was trying to hear something. "Listen…"_

 _A faint thrumming sound came from the distance. The radio stopped playing music, replaced by a haunting voice that sounded like Carla: "You are lost, but you can be found…". The thrumming grew, like a tsunami wave, until it was the only thing he could hear"_

 _"Carla!" he yelled, but the noise was so deafening that it drowned out his voice._

 _Carla looked back at him, she opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. She smiled, leaned in, and kissed him._

Boone woke with a gasp and jumped to his feet, fumbling for his weapon as a Vertibird flew over him so close it blew out the campfire and some of the makeshift metal roof panels of the Sniper's Nest.

"FUCK! What the…" he yelled as he stumbled, trying to get his bearings and shield his eyes from the dust stirred up by the aircraft. It left just as quickly as it came.

 _'They're in a rush'_ he thought, watching it as it flew towards Hidden Valley. Boone was feeling disorientated, his head was spinning. With a groan, he clutched his head and sat back down on the sleeping roll.

' _Carla…_ ' he thought. He realized his face was wet…then he remembered the dream.

 _'Play it again, Johnny Guitar'_ he heard from the radio. Instinctively he unholstered his 10mm pistol and shot the radio. The lights flickered a bit before it finally died and the song stopped. Boone regained his composure, washed his tears with some purified water, and picked up his gear.

With a sigh, he swung his sniper rifle over his shoulder.

"Fine…let's get out of here" he said as he made his way to Hidden Valley.


	6. Chapter 7: In The Shadow Of The Valley

Maya was strapped in a seat on the Vertibird next to Ramos. Once all the excitement of the escape had died down a bit and the adrenaline stopped, her body rudely reminded her that she was still recovering from an injury from before her little "trip" through time. Whatever was in that syringe that they gave her had sped up the healing process rapidly, there was only a scab and some bruising left where she managed to impale herself in the lab when the earthquake hit. Her side was still sore, but the gentle lull of the aircraft was making her feel drowsy.

Ibsen was playing around with a large device that looked somewhat like a large watch or bracelet covering most of his arm, and Maya was intrigued.

"What's that?" she inquired, tilting her head to get a better look.

"Oh, this?" asked Ibsen, looking a bit like he was put on the spot in front of a classroom during show-and-tell, "this is a Pip Boy, it's basically like a computer that you wear on your arm that does…well…a LOT! It's pretty much a relic, from before the Great War" he replied.

"It looks…. fascinating" Maya replied, her eyes continuing to study the device. Ibsen recognised that look – it was the same look every one of his Scribes shared when they found a new device they had absolutely no idea about. It made him smile.

"Here" he said, passing the Pip Boy to her, "you can have it, if you'd like?"

Maya studied it curiously and looked up at Ibsen.

"Are….are you sure? Won't you need it?" she asked.

"Nah, I've come across plenty of Pip Boys. Besides we don't really have any need of them, we have a similar system hooked up in our advanced power armor" he re-affirmed her, "it's yours, if you like it".

Maya's face lit up. "Wow…Thank you" she said and smiled at Ibsen, incredulous that anyone would want to part with such a device. She turned it over a couple of times to study it. It had a screen built in, a couple of worn knobs that when turned changed the display on the screen, listing things like Data, Map, and Radio. "This is incredible" she whispered, her eyes wide.

Ibsen and McNamara smiled at her wonder. "Put it on, try it out for size" chimed McNamara.

Maya looked up at him curiously, then back down at the device. She placed the section with the display facing upwards on her arm, and secured the Pip-boy using the straps underneath. Once it was secure on her arm, the Pip-boy display turned off, and it appeared to restart by itself.

"What's going on?" she asked slightly alarmed.

"Haha" laughed Ibsen, "don't worry! It's supposed to do that"

Maya looked at him quizzically.

"It adapts to the wearer. It will now display your stats and automatically logs anything you pick up and carry with you" Ibsen explained.

"Ooooh…" Maya nodded, not quite sure how the device was able to do that for her…but it certainly sparked her interest.

A bit of code in green lettering popped onto the black screen. ' _Old school style'_ thought Maya and a smile crept onto her face as she remembered the days when she played Space Invaders on her dad's old gaming console.

She clutched the device on her arm, flicking through the tabs and an idea crossed her mind.

"Hey, how about a little music?" she asked the group.

"Sure! I could use something to keep me awake!" replied the pilot enthusiastically.

"I'm sorry Irvine, are we boring you?" McNamara asked light-heartedly.

"Oh no Elder! Not at all, I'm just hoping to catch my favourite tune" the pilot replied more seriously, not wanting to step out of line.

"Relax Irvine, I'm not Elder anymore" replied McNamara, a slight look of disappointment crossing his weathered face, "I've been…replaced".

"Not to us you haven't Sir" the pilot responded firmly, "for us you will always be Elder".

McNamara smiled and thanked him for the gesture, and looked to Maya with a _well? Where's that music then?_ Look.

Maya flicked through to the Radio tab and increased the volume.

'Play the guitar, play it again, my Johnny' came the song through the small speakers, 'Maybe you're cold but you're so warm inside'

Maya remembered the song. It was an old song from the 50's…. back in Maya's time. She could hardly believe that they were listening to these old songs hundreds of years into the future. Surely they must have better songs…?

"You actually listen to this?" she asked

"I was always a fool for my Johnny" the pilot sang along, trying to mimic a woman's voice with impressive results, which answered her question.

McNamara laughed and nodded his head. Maya decided to leave that station on and listened to the lyrics. She found them a bit haunting and…sad…somehow. It made her long for…something. If it wasn't for the pilot's singing antics, she might have changed the radio station to something a bit more…happy…if such a word could be applied in a world that suffered through a nuclear apocalypse. The lull of the craft was having powerful drowsy effects on her, and she felt her eyelids getting heavy. She wanted to relax, to sleep and wake up back home.

"Hey, we're almost there" McNamara's voice broke through her drowsiness, "no sleeping. Not yet anyway"

 _'Sleep would have to wait for now'_ thought Maya. She looked out of the aircraft and McNamara pointed out their landing site and the location of the bunker. Maya didn't know how she felt about going back inside another bunker, not after what they've just been through. But mostly she didn't know how to feel about meeting the rest of Nolan's group. Apart from him, and Ibsen, she didn't detect a welcoming feeling from the other members….

' _Maybe they won't all be this way'_ she hoped, but she already knew the answer deep down – this wasn't her niche.

As the Vertibird came in for a landing, Maya found herself dreading the meet with the other members…and wishing she could be taken back home.

* * *

It took Boone the better part of a day to get to Hidden Valley. He made a few stops along the way, once at Camp Searchlight to check in with the First Recon group and inform them of his progress and current objective. They disapproved of his mission to find the Vertibird and dismissed it as a fool's errand, but their attempts to persuade him away from the mission were met with his stern and silent gaze. They eventually relented, seeing as he was so stubborn to find this very particular craft, and gave him some supplies for his journey. He was, after all, one of the decorated heroes of the war on Hoover Dam and served with the NCR for almost his entire adult life. He was no General, but he did have the full respect of the NCR.

On his way, he made a stop in Nelson to purchase some RadX and Rad Away as he knew that there were parts of Hidden Valley that were still highly radioactive. As soon as he completed his purchase he was back on track though. He had a couple of near misses with some fire geckos and big horners, but managed to get away in time. Fatigue had hit him like a sledgehammer and was causing him to make stupid mistakes. He was glad the Courier wasn't around to see his blunders.

Desperately trying to stay awake, he trudged up the hill to the wire fence surrounding the Brotherhood of Steel's valley. It was a cold night, frost peppered the gravel ground and reflected the full moon's pale white light. A sandstorm was raging in the valley…

 _'I better watch out; they must have patrols out scavenging for supplies'_ he mused. Boone opted to go the more difficult route: he stayed around the rocky areas where more cover was provided, although that did also mean a higher risk of running into some rad scorpions. But he was determined not to reveal his presence.

He clambered onto some rocks and made his way up close to the cliff overlooking the bunker. This way he could minimise a surprise ambush from behind and he would have a good view of what was happening on the ground while maintaining low visibility. Once he was up, he unrolled his sleeping bag and took out his binoculars to scan the area. He couldn't see signs of the Vertibird, but he suspected that such a large craft would not be left so obviously out in the open.

 _'They must have flown the craft to another site'_ thought Boone. The sandstorm would have covered up any tracks by now as well, so Boone decided the best course of action for now would be for him to get some rest. He tucked his binoculars away into his pack and took a few gulps of purified water before pulling the sleeping bag over himself and resting his head on his arm, using it as a pillow. As he drifted off into a deep sleep his thoughts were of Carla and he wondered if she would appear for him again…

* * *

 _0800_

The sun was already beating down on the Mojave and the temperature was rising above 65°F. Rad scorpions were stirring in the shadows beneath Boone's position.

 ***BANG*** the sound of a gun being fired echoed through the valley.

Boone shot out of his sleeping bag and grabbed his rifle and got into shooting position, belly pressed on the rock's rough surface, his right eye planted on his rifle's sight. He made some adjustments to it to compensate for distance.

Surely enough he found the Brotherhood of Steel down there. It looked like all of them were rounded up outside of the bunker, majority of them did not have their power armor on and were being arranged by another group of Paladin's in white armor.

 _'Curious'_ thought Boone. The last time he was here he did not remember seeing any special Paladin guards in white armor. One of the Paladins, the leader Boone guessed, was inspecting the round ups.

"Hmmm" Boone mused….that Paladin looked familiar. He scanned his uniform and found _"T. White"_ written on the left hand of his jacket. It didn't sound familiar…but his face…Boone could feel that he had definitely seen his face before…but where?

' _…where do I recognise you from?...'_ he thought to himself.

Boone carried on looking at the scene on the ground. Every one of the Brotherhood that was not in armor was lined up and the guards were moving up and down the line to make sure no one stepped out of bounds.

"Right!" he heard the Head Paladin yell. He looked the line of people up and down, "Somebody better tell me where the EXILE" he emphasised the last word and paused briefly before continuing, "McNamara and his group are hiding"

Boone remembered McNamara, he is…or was by the looks of things, the Elder for this Brotherhood of Steel group. He helped the Courier aid McNamara when they stumbled upon their bunker. He remembered that the Courier even managed to convince the Brotherhood to aid the NCR at Hoover Dam.

Silence in the valley…no one spoke or stepped up to betray the Elder. Boone respected that, McNamara was a great leader who did everything for his people to keep them safe and hidden. Now…they were all on display for anyone who would stumble into the Valley.

"HARDIN!" the Head Paladin yelled. Head Paladin Hardin stepped forward out of the line without a word.

From this point on Boone couldn't hear anything else being said in the valley, just a lot of gesturing. It was then that he felt something cold and metallic press behind his skull. His stomach dropped. _'Shit'_ Boone thought.

"Put it down, _slowly_ " a young male voice said behind the gun said. He felt a hand grab and pull away his beret.

Boone complied, slowly putting his rifle on the rocky ground and raising both arms up beside his head.

"Now…back up from the precipice" ordered the voice. Again, Boone complied and crawled away from the precipice, but he still had his combat knife hidden underneath his shirt secured by his belt, and he was starting to itch for it…

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end you where you stand, NCR?" the voice snarled.

"Because you're gonna get us in some serious shit if you pull that trigger" said Boone.

The voice hesitated for a second.

"And how do you know I'm not a White Paladin?" he asked.

The corner of Boone's mouth curved upwards ever so slightly. He had him now.

"Because if you were….we wouldn't be having this conversation" he stated matter-of-factly.

"Put your gun down!" hissed a familiar male voice.

 _'Could it be?..._ ' thought Boone.

He heard a few hurried steps, then a hand pull him around on his back. Boone kept his arms up above his head. He knew now he was safe.

"No… _you_ …" McNamara said wide eyed, realising it was one of the Courier's aids "what the hell are you doing here?"

He was kneeling over Boone with a Brotherhood scout who looked a bit too young to be in full service yet.

"I could ask you the same question" Boone replied, squinting in the bright morning light.

McNamara reached his arm out to Boone and helped him stand up. He looked him in the eyes and studied him for a second.

"Why are you here?" he insisted. Boone sighed and explained the Vertibird he saw that almost blew the Sniper's Nest away heading to Hidden Valley and that he decided to follow it.

"I figured something was going on, so decided to see what that was" he continued.

"Yeah" McNamara sighed, "yeah that was us".

 ***BANG*** another gunshot echoed through the valley followed by White yelling.

They all dropped down to the ground and peered over the precipice. White was trying to intimidate the group, and it looked like Hardin was knocked out. He was sprawled on the ground, a bruise already visible on his balding head and a cut running along his eyebrow was bleeding.

Boone looked over to McNamara, "I can end this, just say the word". His gaze was steady and no hint of hesitation in his voice.

McNamara shook his head, "No, that would just confirm their suspicions" he said,"and besides, they have my people hostage..."

Boone raised an eyebrow slightly, betraying his curiosity for the predicament that this Brotherhood group was in.

McNamara caught his curiosity and replied "I'll explain everything, soon as we're out of here"

Boone nodded, picked up his rifle and duffle bag and followed behind the two Brotherhood members away from earshot of the bunker.

"Fine…but I'd really like my beret back, please"


	7. Chapter 8: Finding The Followers

Maya was huddled together with the rest of the group of escapees in the Vertibird. She was sat next to Ramos again and tasked with helping out with his treatment. He was severely wounded during his interrogation, but luckily they were able to procure some temporary treatment for him from the doctor at the Hidden Valley Bunker. For the moment Ramos was alright, but they needed to get to a group called the Followers of the Apocalypse to get him proper treatment. Maya didn't know who these Followers were, but they sounded ominous and not at all like a group that would be able, much less willing, to help an injured individual.  
They were currently waiting for McNamara to get back to the Vertibird. He had gone with a scout to make sure that their tracks were covered and they weren't being followed.

"Urngh…" Ramos grunted, fumbling at his safety belt trying to loosen up one of the seat straps.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be moving around" Maya reproached him, loosening up the strap for him, "There, sorted. Now relax."

Ramos looked at her insipidly, "Since when do you give orders?" he asked.

"Since now" Maya stated firmly, to which Ramos laughed weakly, coughing between laughs.

"Why's that funny?" she asked, a bit insulted.

"Well… you're a little young to be ordering _me_ around" Ramos replied.

Maya pondered for a second, then grinned, "No, I'm older than you"

"Ha! Yeah right" Ramos joked.

"What year is it again? 2291?" Maya asked.

"Yeah….so?" replied Ramos, shaking his head and looking puzzled.

"That makes me…303 years old" Maya retorted, a wide victorious grin on her face

"Huh…" Ramos mused, his expression not hiding his defeat very well. "Well….you got me there" he conceded.

Maya rummaged out a bottle of purified water for Ramos and a blanket to keep him warm during the flight, when Irvine, the pilot, exclaimed that McNamara was on his way….with company.

' _With company? Who else managed to get away'_ thought Maya optimistically. She looked out of the door and shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight. Surely enough, McNamara was making quick pace to reach the Vertibird along with the scout and…someone else. He was dressed in military cargo pants, what many decades ago must have been a pristine white shirt, and a heavy duffle bag and sniper rifle over his shoulders, and a red beret on his head. Curious…

McNamara signalled the pilot to start the engines up, and all three hurriedly jumped in.

"Go…" panted McNamara, and the pilot jerked the craft forward and upward, making a sharp right turn to get the craft out of the valley and above ground. The man with the red beret didn't get enough time to grab hold of something and started to slide toward the open side of the craft…

Maya gasped and reached out her arm, grabbing hold of his wrist tightly.

"Wooah!" cried Boone, as he grabbed his saviour's arm. He looked up at and to his surprise he saw a woman. Her eyes were closed shut, her teeth gritting, her expression strained as she was fighting against the g-force they were experiencing and the weight she was holding onto…

Boone flung his left leg around and caught the edge of the opening, and with the help of the woman he pulled himself up.

"Thanks!" he gasped, "I owe you".

"Don't mention it" she panted, wincing and nursing her arm that now had a noticeable dark red hand print on the wrist.

Boone quickly studied her. She didn't look like a member of the Brotherhood, nor did she look like your typical wastelander. Her appearance…her clothing, looked very old world but…different somehow. She was wearing dark denim jeans, a loose black sweater with a hood, and her shoes…

"Conv-erse" Boone muttered out loud.

Maya looked at him a bit puzzled, then saw he was studying her shoes.

"Oh…yeah, that's the name of the brand" she affirmed.

Boone was puzzled, "Your shoes have a brand?"

"Well… Yeah…I guess" Maya said, still feeling a bit confused and not knowing how to tackle these types of questions. In her time you didn't need to explain or question your shoe brand, and the only comments she ever got for wearing Converse trainers was "Chuck's All Stars? Niiiiiiice man" from undergrands that may...or may not...have been wasted and/or a little bit...high. That was the seal of approval. She also didn't want to reveal any information to this stranger.

"Huh…" was all he said before leaning back into a chair.

Maya winced at the pain that was shooting in her wrist up her arm. She clutched at it and tried to soothe the pain by rubbing her wrist.

Boone was watching her behind his sunglasses. He realised that when she was holding onto him she might have sprained her wrist.

"Don't" he pointed at her wrist, "it will make it worse".

Maya stopped and looked at him. She could barely see through those opaque sunglasses, but she knew he was looking right into her eyes. It sent a chill down her spine…

She sighed and rummaged for a bandage through the medic bag that was under her seat.

Boone got down to his knees and got the medic bag out for her. She had already saved his life, the least he could do was help bandage her arm up.

"I'm sorry I hurt you" he apologised, his voice a bit softer.

"No, you didn't" Maya shook her head, "I can fin-" she insisted as Boone rummaged through the bag.

"Got it" Boone interrupted her, fishing a bandaging roll out and making quick work on her wrist. He secured the bandage in a rough double knot and returned the bag back in its original place.

Maya studied his handiwork. It was crude, but it would do, and her wrist was already starting to feel a bit better.

"Thanks" she said with a smile, "feels better already".

With her approval, Boone nodded and got back into his seat opposite her. He didn't know whether or not she could see could see his eyes behind his aviators, but he made sure not to reveal any expressions of emotion, although…he couldn't get her out of his sight… Her smile made him hopeful that there was still some good left in the wasteland.

"I'm Maya" she said, reaching her bandaged arm out for a handshake.

"I'm…" Boone reached, but hesitated for a second, not sure whether to reveal who he is. Years of failed trust between those he thought were his friends made him weary of making new ones, but…he felt that this time it would be different.

"I'm Boone" he said firmly, taking her hand gently in his. And again, that smile…

"Just Boone?" she asked amused. He nodded affirmatively. "Okay, Boone. It's nice to meet you"

Maya smiled, happy to make another friend. He may not be very talkative, but he was definitely warmer towards her than some of the other members of the Brotherhood group. And that made her feel at ease a bit. She didn't know why or how, but she felt like she could trust this man.

She relaxed back in her chair, put her hands in the pouch of her sweater, and stared out into the bright blue sky until the gentle lull of the flight helped her doze off into a dreamless sleep; all the while being watched by a protective pair of green eyes hidden behind opaque aviator glasses.

* * *

An hour passed before Maya was roused awake by the jolts of the Vertibird as it began its descent. With groggy eyes, she looked around at the others who were all getting ready to disembark. Ramos was up and trying to chat with Boone, although Boone wasn't proving to be much of a conversationalist….at all. But Ramos didn't seem to mind, it looked like they knew each other from way back.

Boone noticed Maya stirring and turned his attention to her.

"Good, you're awake" he said. Maya detected a hint of relief in him at not having to converse with his acquaintance anymore. She nodded and stretched her arms, but stopped abruptly after feeling a painful twinge from her sprained wrist. She muttered to herself, annoyed for forgetting her sprained wrist.

Boone's gaze never left her, and Maya caught him looking at her arm.

"It's okay" she affirmed, "it'll be back to normal in a few days".

He nodded and his gaze drifted down to her feet. Maya had a sense that he was feeling remorseful maybe for her wrist as an almost awkward silence grew between them. She looked at him and noticed his beret had an insignia on it.

"What's that insignia on your beret?" Maya asked, breaking the silence.

Boone looked up at her and proceeded to explain.

"First NCR Recon. It's a sniper battalion. Sees a lot of action" he stated simply.

Maya was intrigued, "I figured you were in the military, given your appearance. How did you end up being in a sniper battalion?"

"They pick you out if you do well at the firing range. Pays a little better, so I said okay", he replied.

She studied the slogan on the insignia, squinting in an attempt to read the letters.

"What does the slogan say?"

"The last thing you never see. Pretty accurate, and so were we" Boone answered.

"Is that a First Recon beret then?" she asked.

"Yeah. You can tell by the patch. Bear skull with crossed rifles behind it"

He was particularly talkative when it came to the NCR, whatever that was. Maya decided to ask him about that and he succinctly explained that NCR stands for the New California Republic and how and why it was created.

"You're a veritable fountain of information NCR, we should have hired you long ago as a spy" joked Ramos. Boone did not humour him with a response, but he didn't look amused.

A high pitched whine sounded as the landing gear extended, followed by a thud.

...They were in the middle of nowhere…

Everyone except the pilot started to disembark.

 _'I suppose that means me too'_ thought Maya as she undid her straps.

Boone took it upon himself to help Maya out. He didn't want her injuring her wrist any more than it already was. In the wasteland you need as little distraction as possible so you can keep your wits about you. However, that wasn't the only reason he didn't hesitate to offer his assistance wherever possible…

He swung his rifle over one shoulder, the duffle bag over the other, and helped Maya out with the medic bags she had to carry out.

"Right" McNamara said, loud enough for his group to hear him, "everyone changes into the clothes provided in this bag". He threw two large black duffle bags on the ground in front of them. "No one is to even suspect we are nothing more than your ordinary wastelanders who happened to run into some trouble with a couple of Raiders and need medical assistance from the Followers of the Apocalypse" McNamara continued giving their fabricated backstory, to use in case they were questioned by anyone. "All clear?" he asked.

A resounding "Yes Elder" came from the group, and everyone started digging for their inconspicuous clothing.

Paladin Watkins tossed Maya a pair of brown and beige overalls that could have passed for rags, a belt, a baseball hat, and a pair of worn out leather shoes that were two sizes too large for her and had multiple holes in the sole, big enough to let little bits of gravel through and into. One whiff of the clothing and Maya gave serious thought to staying behind with Irvine in the Vertibird. She looked around and everyone was getting undressed. It made her feel uncomfortable…

"That includes you Maya" McNamara pointed at her absentmindedly while putting his "new" boots on, then making his way over to the pilot to inform him of their route.

 _'Well….no getting out of this I suppose'_ she thought grudgingly and slowly started with her shoes…

Boone felt a bit uncomfortable being next to Maya as she was undressing. He could feel his hands getting clammy and his ears burning slightly, so he turned and walked a few steps away from the group to give them all a bit of privacy since he had no need to change his clothing. This way he could also keep watch and make sure that they weren't going to get a nasty surprise from a radscorpion or fire gecko…or worse.

With her own clothes now in one of the black duffle bags and the rags hanging loosely over her figure, she couldn't help but put a hand up to her nose. It seemed she was given the worst of the pile, as she was the only one who stank of bad BO, motor oil…and damp.

On top of that there were large holes in her shirt and pants.

"Ugh...is this even sanitary?" she silently muttered, more to herself than anyone else. But Paladin Watkins overheard her.

"You're still wearing your t-shirt underneath those clothes. Get rid of it" Watkins commanded.

"I'd like to keep this shirt on underneath if that's okay" Maya replied, "there are too many holes…it would be inappropriate"

 _'And I really want to limit my skin contact with these...clothes'_ she thought, disgusted.

"Your noncompliance is inappropriate, I said take it off" Watkins scolded, her tone derogatory.

"No" Maya held her ground.

"Hey, leave her alone" Ramos called out weakly, but Watkins ignored him. She was glaring at Maya. Watkins marched towards her, ready to enforce McNamara's orders physically if need be.

Maya stood her ground but was starting to feel a bit shaky. She wasn't one to get into arguments, in fact she actively avoided them at all costs.

Boone heard the commotion and turned around to see Paladin Watkins making her way angrily towards Maya. In half a dozen long fast steps he intercepted her and stood in front of Maya, shielding her.

"Enough" he said looking down at her.

"Out of my way NCR, she's not obeying orders"

"You're asking for it" said Boone, his voice threatening.

At those words Paladin Watkin's face turned red.

"I have no trouble killing you…" she spat, "in fact…your death… it would honor my parents" Watkins spoke the words angrily through her teeth. But Boone just loomed over her, his lips pressed tightly together trying to control his rage.

"Not a good idea" he replied threateningly, "you need to leave".

"Watkins!" Came McNamara's voice.

The Paladin's back straightened, her expression devoid of hostility but her face still red.

"Yes Elder" she replied.

"What's going on?" McNamara demanded as he walked over and stood in front of all three of them. Maya was trembling and feeling embarrassed that she had caused such a stir of events.

"I..I'm sorry..I just wanted to -" she stammered, but Boone stopped her.

"Don't. You did nothing wrong" he assured Maya. Turning his attention back to Watkins, he continued "Your paladin was behaving threateningly Elder", not letting his eyes falter off of Watkins.

McNamara looked perplexed by what he was hearing.

"What happened?" he asked, his gaze now upon Watkins.

Paladin Watkins was still shaking slightly with anger, but she took a breath to compose herself and refrain from showing hostility towards the NCR sniper and the stranger.

"She was not obeying your order, Elder. You specified that we should change all of our clothing in order to remain inconspicuous. She's still wearing her old world shirt under the rags" Watkins sneered.

McNamara turned to Maya and realized Watkins was correct: Maya was indeed wearing her old world grey shirt underneath the disguise. But….she didn't stick out from the rest of the group. If anyone were to see her they wouldn't think twice…except for maybe her unusual hair which was long and reached down past her waist. No one in the wasteland had long hair like that, too easy to get yanked during a fight and get you killed. He heaved a deep sigh before he replied.

"Maya you're…okay. Apart from your hair, you don't stick out" he stated, but upon seeing the horror on her face he quickly added "but, don't worry! I'm not about to ask you to chop it off….just….tuck it in so it's hidden" he suggested.

"Okay…" Maya nodded.

"Watkins, come with me" McNamara pulled her away from Boone and they walked back to the group that was staring at them not 10 feet away.

"I tried to tell her but she wouldn't listen" started Ramos.

"Don't! Just...don't" replied Watkins, busying herself with the bags of supplies.

Boone didn't move until Watkins backed off and returned to her crew. Only then did he shift his gaze to Maya, watching her expressions change.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah" sighed Maya, nodding and reassuring him with a smile, "thank you".

' _Why do I feel there's a but somewhere in there?'_ thought Boone. Maya was fidgeting, shifting her feet a bit and scratching the back of her head. She appeared to be a bit…. embarrassed?

"I could have handled it" came the 'but' Boone was waiting for.

He nodded in agreement, "I know".

Maya looked up at him. He was a full 5…maybe 6 inches taller than her, but he wasn't imposing…towards her at least.

"Why?" she asked, "why are you helping me?"

Boone gave considerable thought about his answer…

"Because…" he started, not knowing how to express the thought fully, much less the feeling he got from being around her, "you're different…very different…like from another time"

"How" Maya pressed?

Boone sighed, taking off his sunglasses and trying to avoid her gaze; it was clear he wasn't completely comfortable talking about this. But Maya wanted to talk. Ever since she got to this forsaken time, no one was willing to talk to her like a normal human being. Everything is about survival, words had to be succinct and efficient.

"I can't explain it. It's like you're from a better time. You smile…. a lot. You do things to help others, even if it means you might get hurt in the process. People here are not like that, not unless there is a reward for it" he said.

Maya couldn't stop herself. She was smiling again, and feeling very self-conscious about it.

"There it is again" said Boone, the corner of his lips curving upwards so slightly that if you blinked you'd miss it.

"Okay, I get it" she chuckled, "I'll …try to be more doom and gloom to fit in".

"No!" Boone exclaimed. His emotions betrayed him and his aviators weren't there to shield Maya from it. He had an air of concern, if but for a moment. Catching Maya's curious glance, he tried to regain composure before proceeding.

"No, don't…it would be a betrayal of who you are. And besides, the world is filled with too much despair. Maybe it's high time people and things start to change…" his voice trailed off and he found himself staring into Maya's eyes…. blue eyes…he didn't notice that before.

"What?" Maya asked curiously.

Blue eyes, almost like the Cottonwood cove lake on a clear day, speckled with hints of green…and a golden ring encircling the pupils...

Boone tried to remain expressionless, but his face was betraying painful memories. He quickly put his aviators back on. They helped act like a physical shield for him, reflecting nothingness back at whoever was trying to peer in the secrets that hid behind his eyes. He wasn't ready for this…. not yet….probably not ever.

"Nothing" he said, breaking his gaze away from Maya and tilting his head back to observe the Brotherhood group that were almost ready to embark on their journey, "Let's get out of here". He turned on his heels, Maya keeping pace behind him.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"The Old Mormon Fort" he replied.

With their gear in hand and Ramos safely strapped in a wooden stretcher, they left the safety of the Vertibird and, for the first time since she arrived in this new world, Maya was plunged into the terrors and despair of the Mojave wasteland…

* * *

The Mojave wasteland was treacherous territory. Many who were foolish enough to traverse its expanse unarmed did not make it out alive. Fire ants and geckos, coyotes, ghouls, radscorpions, and deathclaws were plentiful, but the worst of these dangers were large and aggressive flying insects called Cazadors. Their stingers were enough to fatally impale you, and the poison that would be injected into your bloodstream if you were unlucky to get stung was potent enough to down a full grown Brahmin. And if you were lucky enough to avoid the wildlife, there were the raiders to contend with. Powder gangers were no longer a threat, the NCR saw to that when they swept through the Mojave after Hoover Dam. The Khans left peacefully after the Courier helped them to bury the hatchet with the NCR. All that's left of that tribe are the battered and scavenged remains of their tents.

McNamara was focused on getting the whole group to the Old Mormon Fort in one piece. But after getting Ramos the much needed treatment to get him back on his feet, McNamara would have to plan their next objective.

 _'Treat Ramos, get Hidden Valley back'_ he thought to himself, prioritizing his current objectives. He needed everyone in his team to be in top condition. But the other thing that was bothering him was Maya...

He hadn't anticipated this outcome when he took his team on the mission to the particle collider. She was an unknown variable, and frankly McNamara didn't know what to do about her. Right now he was keeping her busy with menial tasks, but soon he was going to have to ask her some questions about her time. He had to figure out what went wrong the first time. They couldn't give up on this, not when they were so close.

 _'After Ramos gets treated'_ McNamara said to himself. He looked over his shoulder and saw Maya conversing with Boone in the back. He couldn't catch what they were talking about, but it looked like Maya was doing most of the talking. Funnily enough it didn't appear like the soldier minded. It was unlike him. Granted McNamara didn't know this soldier very well, but even when he was helping the Courier many years ago, it appeared he was trying his hardest to keep his distance from everyone. He didn't say much, and didn't seem to listen to conversations that sounded pointless to him. However, he seemed to listen to every word Maya said. This made McNamara feel a little uneasy, because either Maya was giving him some sensitive information...or he was considering taking her to the NCR...

McNamara was going to keep a watchful eye on Maya while the soldier was around. Hopefully he wasn't going to stay for long.

Although McNamara was grateful for his desire to assist with the situation, this was McNamara's dispute and he didn't want any unnecessary information leaking into the NCR's ever curious ear...

 _'But if he refuses to leave...I'll have to convince him...'_ thought McNamara, as he lead his group onward...

* * *

After about an hour and a half of backbreaking hiking through the desert, Maya heaved a sigh of relief when they saw signs of civilization. A sign reading "North Gate" was mounted wonkily on one of the gate doors. The entire area was surrounded by a high fence, but the view inside was blocked off by layers upon layers of sheets of plywood and metal. There were no people outside of the gates, but Maya was hoping that there would be people in there that could help them out.

McNamara proceeded to open the doors. What Maya saw inside made her heart drop into her stomach...

It was like shelter for the homeless, and despair was palpable. People dressed in nothing but rags were either meandering through the streets, or passed out on curbs. Maya was pretty sure that one of those individuals they were walking by who was passed out was actually deceased...their skin grey, mottled, and their body was in an odd position with one arm outstretched and legs spread shoulder length apart, as if they were dragged by someone...

But the group kept walking. No one stopped to help, or to at least show some respect for the deceased man by covering his body. Maya couldn't hide her shock and pain, but instead turned her gaze down to her feet, watching as a tear left her eyes and dropped onto her dusty shoe.

Boone noticed a change in Maya's demeanor and turned to face her. She didn't look up at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, curious.

Maya shook her head, not wanting to say anything in case the others heard her. They already didn't think much of her, and she didn't want to talk because she knew her voice would break with sorrow.

Boone stopped walking and put a hand on her shoulder, turning her to face him. But she still kept her gaze down and tried to look away. This concerned him.

"Maya what's wrong?" he gently insisted.

The group had stopped too at hearing Boone's questions. McNamara turned around and saw Boone pulling Maya aside. He felt a twinge of anxiety and started towards her.

"Everything okay here?" he asked, turning to face Maya, "what's the matter?". He was eyeing Boone

Maya shook her head again.

McNamara sighed, "Maya, why can't you tell me what's wrong?"

Taking a few silent deep breaths, Maya tried to regain her composure before answering their questions.

"It's...I've never..." she stammered, but frustrated with trying to find the right words she decided to answer bluntly, "there's a body back there".

McNamara and Boone looked over her shoulder to where the lifeless body of a man lay on the curb.

"That's all?" McNamara asked. Maya looked up at him, hurt by his insensitivity. Her eyes were welling up and one of her cheeks had a wet trail running down to her chin. He inhaled sharply, realizing he shouldn't have been so insensitive towards her. After all, she wasn't from this time. This was all new to her, and no doubt she had never seen a corpse on the side of a road before. He had to keep this in mind...

"I'm sorry Maya" he said, his expression apologetic, "unfortunately we can't help everyone in the wasteland, I wish we could". He tried to comfort her, but he became uncomfortably conscious of the fact that Boone's gaze was following him.

Maya tried to hide her face as she was wiping away her tears. Then she thought about Ramos. She was delaying his treatment...

"Okay" she nodded, "I'm okay. Go and I'll catch up" she replied.

Before McNamara could protest about everyone sticking together as a group and not leaving behind any stragglers, Boone said "Don't worry, I've got her back".

 _'That's what worries me'_ McNamara thought to himself, but he nodded and led the group forward at a slightly slower pace, giving Maya some space.

Boone looked at Maya who was wiping away any tear remnants from her face. He wished there was something he could do or say...then he realized he had a tent sheet in his dufflebag. He removed it and made his way to the corpse. Taking a look at the lifeless shell of what was once a human being, he couldn't help but imagine Carla and what she looks like now...

"No...don't think of her like that" he whispered to himself.

With one quick motion, Boone unfurled the sheet and covered the corpse. Boone turned to see Maya, who was watching him with a sad yet grateful expression. He took off his aviators and made his way back to her position. He wanted her to see that he wasn't heartless, he did care...

Swinging his bag over his shoulder once again, he could tell just from one look that Maya was deeply scarred seeing that corpse.

"You're not alright, are you" he said, more of a statement than a question.

Maya shook her head, "No...I'm not" she replied as she shifted the bags on her back to a more comfortable position and followed the group that was some 100 meters in front of them now.

* * *

"Aaaah!" Ramos yelled in pain as a doctor looked him over in the Old Mormon Fort.

"Yeah, that's two broken ribs there" she said as her gloved hands moved along his sides, "You've also got a break in your left arm, and a fractured femur..." she continued.

"What the hell happened?" the doctor asked turning to McNamara.

"We were attacked by raiders" he replied.

Julie Farkas didn't believe that, this man looked like he was tortured. But she decided not to press the matter. They must have their reasons for not revealing their information.

"Alright...the good news is there is no sign of internal bleeding" she stated.

"Will he be okay? Can you treat him?" asked McNamara.

Julie sighed as she took off her examination gloves and wrote some information on her medical clipboard.

"Yes" she said, "if you hadn't given him that super stimpack immediately after you were attacked, he wouldn't be here right now...but...his recovery will be slow" she continued.

McNamara looked at her pleadingly.

"Is there no way to speed up the healing process?" he asked.

Julie shrugged and thought for a second before replying hesitantly, "There is another doctor nearby...Dr. Usanagi, who has a clinic that can insert implants in patients to help them with whatever they need" she said, "But! It is extremely costly, about 12,000 caps. And given your...friend's...condition right now I would not recommend experimental implants" she insisted.

McNamara nodded in agreement, "Yes, that is...dangerous and costly" he said.

"I recommend you stay a few nights until we can assess the level of therapy treatment we can give your friend" Julie said, "in the mean time we will treat his immediate injuries, but you must leave him with us overnight" she continued.

Upon seeing McNamara's concerned expression, she reassured him that Ramos would be treated well and that he is safe.

"We have some free beds at the fort for your group" the doctor continued, but after counting their members she realized that not all of them would be accommodated, "however I believe we can only accommodate two of you at most, as we'll need beds for patients".

The group looked at each other, waiting to see who would volunteer to stay behind.

"Well...don't you all jump in at once!" Ramos quipped sarcastically.

"I'll stay" Ibsen came forward, and before anyone could volunteer for the second bed Maya stepped up next to Ibsen.

"I'll be here, too" she nodded.

McNamara's head tilted up in surprise, he didn't expect she would volunteer for this.

Julie Farkas nodded, "Alright, I'll notify my staff and let them know we'll have guests tonight. But in the meantime I will need you all to vacate the room so I can treat my patient" she said. That was everyone's queue to leave, so they all gave Ramos a few words of encouragement before exiting the tent.

Boone was waiting for them in the fort, sitting on a battered chair with some other guards in front of a slight wall of sand bags. He was using his combat knife to carve a short wooden stick into a spear point. If Maya didn't know any better, she would have said he was bored.

Everyone pooled together at the entrance to grab the gear they had left there with a guard, except for McNamara who walked beside Maya.

"Are you sure you want to stay here this evening, away from the group?" he asked.

Maya didn't want to say that the reason for her desire to stay was because she would feel more comfortable away from the group. She didn't know these people very well, but she built a good relationship with Ramos and Ibsen and they both showed her more kindness than the rest. Also she had just found out that the Followers of the Apocalypse were all just a group of doctors who were trying to help people. She couldn't think of a safer place to be. And she was curious about them...

"Yeah..." she nodded, "I'll be okay, and Ramos looks like he could use the company".

They had reached the gate when McNamara pulled out a walkie talkie out and gave Maya a serious look, "If you need anything, or if anything changes, you use this" he handed her the communication device, "it's set to the correct frequency, all you have to do is turn it on".

"I will, thanks" Maya acknowledged.

"Alright," McNamara replied, and turned to Boone, "You coming Boone?"

Boone stopped carving, tilted his head to one side slightly and took a few seconds of thoughtful pause before replying "No".

Maya noticed McNamara tense up a bit. He straightened his back and folded his arms over his chest, "They don't have enough room for 3 people" he said, "what do you plan to do?"

Boone noticed the change in McNamara's tone but chose not to react to it and just resumed carving.

"I've got my own sleeping bag" he replied in his usual monotone voice.

McNamara wasn't amused, but he didn't want to escalate things.

"Fine" he sighed through gritted teeth. He turned to Maya again, "Please...promise me you'll contact us if anything goes wrong. And...don't give Boone all your trust" he warned.

Maya furrowed her brow in confusion.

"He's keeping something from us" McNamara continued, "I don't trust him".

"..Okay..." Maya nodded slowly.

' _I can't say the same'_ was all she thought.

A smile crossed McNamara's weary face. He nodded, "We'll stop by to visit tomorrow".

Grabbing his gear he led the Brotherhood group out of the gate, leaving Maya, Ibsen, and Boone together in the Fort. As they made their way through Freeside to find some overnight accommodation, McNamara was hoping that he didn't just make a grave mistake...


	8. Chapter 9: Atomic Wrangler

_Two days have passed since their arrival at the Old Mormon Fort. Ramos is stable and recovering quickly in the care of the Followers. McNamara and his team are out on scouting missions to check the security of the area and make sure that they weren't being followed._  
 _Maya is having a tough time adjusting to the new world she finds herself in. Everything is familiar, yet alien to her; and she isn't accustomed to the way of life in this time. She also wasn't used to having nothing to do all day. Restlessness and boredom force her to get out of the Fort and explore the new area._

* * *

Fatigue was setting in, and Maya's eyes grew heavy. She was keeping a snoring Ramos company in one of the tents inside the Fort. Maya looked down at her Pip-Boy and checked the time: it was only 17:38 hours. She had barely slept since reaching the Old Mormon Fort almost 48 hours ago. The strange sounds and unpleasant smells were keeping her awake and on alert, but now her mind and body were tired and she would give anything for some rest. If only she could get to sleep.  
Ramos was doing much better thankfully. His sides were bandaged up and his arm and leg were put in a cast on the day they arrived. The problem was his injuries would take a couple of months to heal. When McNamara heard the news his disappointment was noticed by all. Maya didn't see much of him or the group over the past two days except in the evening on the day they arrived when McNamara came by to check up on them. Otherwise they seemed to be off elsewhere, occupied with other matters.

It was still hot outside but the sun was going down and a cool evening breeze was beginning to blow. Maya decided to step out of the tent and stretch her legs a bit. She was wondering when she would be able to leave the Fort and get back home. Two days cooped up in a place filled with the sick and injured was taking a toll on her mental health. She picked up her radio and attached it to her belt, stepped out into the bright sunlight and was greeted by Julie Farkas, one of the doctors - or Followers of the Apocalypse as they liked to be called.

"Oh, hello" Julie said, "I wasn't expecting to see you still in the tent. How are you doing today?"

"Alright, tired for the most part but otherwise doing okay" Maya replied as she stretched her stiff arms up and behind her.

Julie looked a bit concerned.

"Are you sure? You seem fatigued" she asked, "I don't think I've seen you take a wink of sleep since you got here. I could give you something to help you sleep" she suggested.

Shaking her head, Maya assured Julie that she didn't need a sleep aid.

"I'll be fine, I'm just still not used to my surroundings" she stated.

Julie nodded, "Maybe a change in scenery will help" she advised and proceeded into the tent Maya exited to check up on Ramos. As the tent flap closed behind her, Maya could already hear Ramos' complaining about being woken up and being poked and prodded for the second time today.

 _'A change in scenery...That's actually not a bad idea...'_ Maya thought. She looked around and could only see two of the guards keeping watch, one at the gate and one behind the sand bags. No sign of Boone though...

She didn't talk to him much after McNamara left. His message about not trusting Boone was still ringing in her mind, but she was also wondering how much she could trust anyone in this world. Maya didn't understand this world much, a lot of things didn't make sense. For one, if it really was over 200 years since the bombs were dropped, why has there been no progress in terms of civilization and social development. Things were, in fact, a whole lot worse than before the nuclear war. It still was no excuse for the lack of progress. It is human nature to grow and develop.

 _'Maybe progress stagnated because too many creative, intelligent, and caring people were wiped off the face of the planet with a push of a button, and the ones that were left to pick up the shattered pieces were stuck in this devastation for too long to see that there is a better way'_ Maya thought depressingly. Whatever the reason was, Maya didn't want to stay in this timeline forever. She was feeling extremely homesick and thinking about her life back in the year 2017 non stop.

With a shuddering sigh, she walked over to the guard at the gate.

"Anything interesting to do around here?" she asked the guard absentmindedly.

"Well, ya got Mick and Ralph's northeast of the East gate for consumables, there's the King's School of Impersonation, Cerulean Robotics if you're a Scavver, but if you're looking for a good time the Atomic Wrangler is the place to be" he replied.

Maya thought for a second and decided that wherever she goes it'd be best if she were in close distance to the Fort, and preferably following a straight line path so she doesn't get lost.

"Which one's closer...and easier to get to?" she asked.

"The Wrangler, for sure" he replied, "If you catch a pretty girl there called Molly tell her I sent you, she'll take care of you" he said with a tip of his cowboy style hat and a very happy grin on his face.

"Okay...Thanks" Maya said hesitantly.

"Oh! Here's your knife! Don't want you to get stranded out there without a weapon" the guard said pulling the familiar combat knife Maya was given by McNamara. She nodded, tucked the sheathed knife under her belt next to her walkie and hid it under her shirt and jacket. Fortunately she was given some better wasteland settler clothes and shoes by the Followers. They weren't perfect, but at least they didn't stink or have holes in them.

* * *

Being outside of the Fort was a bit unnerving...

Sounds of glass breaking in the vicinity, people yelling, fires crackling in metal barrels were almost overloading her senses. And the smell...

"Ugh" Maya grunted, putting her sleeve up to her nose to try to filter some of the stench out. She turned left in the direction the guard pointed her to. On her way to the Wrangler, Maya saw something that would haunt her thought forever: a starving child chasing after a huge fleeing rat with a table knife...

She kept going though, an overwhelming feeling of being watched washing over her. She wasn't planning on being away for long, maybe just half an hour just to get away from the monotony of the Fort.

The flashy Atomic Wrangler Casino neon sign and the sounds of music playing and people laughing assured that she had reached the correct place. She hurriedly made her way inside and was washed over with the smell of alcohol, cigarettes, and food...

 _'I am a bit hungry'_ she though as her mouth started to salivate.

She hesitantly walked over to the bar. A woman wiping some draft glasses looked up at her. She seemed a bit taken aback, almost as if she wasn't expecting anyone new, but quickly recovered her composure.

"What'll it be?" she asked.

Maya stood hesitantly in front of a free bar stool.

"Uhh...what food do you serve here?" she asked.

"Here" the woman replied, "take a look" and produced a list of available food and drink items all scribbled onto a heavily stained piece of paper. Maya was regretting not stuffing a bottle of hand sanitizer in her pocket before going into the particle collider lab. She had a look through the list. Most of the things seemed innocuous, like the Blamco Mac & Cheese, Instamash, Pork 'n Beans; but then there were some...exotic - for the lack of a better word - items on the menu. These included gecko steak, molerat meat, and to Maya's horror...dog steak.

"Oh my God.." she muttered in horrified disbelief under her breath. Immediately she lost her appetite, wondering if one of the aromas she was inhaling was poor Spot's flesh sizzling. Maya decided she would stick with her rations back at the Fort, but that she would have a drink.

"One...Nuka Cola please" she requested handing the make-shift menu back to the woman at the bar.

"20 caps" the woman replied flatly.

Maya remembered that McNamara told her that the currency in this world consists of bottle caps and gave her 100 caps to use if she needed it. Whoever thought of using bottle caps as a form of currency certainly must have been high, or out of their mind...or both.

"That's a bit steep for a bottle of cola" Maya replied.

The woman simply looked at Maya blankly, stretched out the palm of her hand and said "20 caps or no cola".

Maya frowned, "Fine" she replied as she grudgingly handed the woman the caps and was handed the bottle in return. She decided to sit down for a bit while she drank her Nuka Cola. Looking around in between sips she noticed that there was a stage, possibly for some comedy or show performance. There were a couple of people around, most were sitting at tables having their drinks or eating, others were sat in groups playing cards, but most of the customers were just around the corner gambling their precious caps away.  
 _'Hmph, at least that hasn't changed'_ she thought.

"Do you know of anyone called Molly here?" Maya asked, curious.

The woman behind the bar stopped cleaning and looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, then turned her head away and yelled "Molly! There's someone here to see you" before proceeding with her task.

Out of an open door at the top of the stairs to Maya's left came an attractive young woman, possibly in her early 20s, dressed only in underwear and a short faded black robe that just grazed her waist. Her hair was bleached blonde, like Marilyn Monroe blonde and in that similar hairstyle, with dark brown eyebrows and hazel eyes. She glided down the stairs and walked up to the woman at the bar.

"Who's looking for me Francine" she asked softly.

"That's Mrs. Garrett to you" the woman behind the bar replied gruffly and tilted her head in Maya's direction, "you got a customer"

Molly looked at Maya a bit surprised, "Oh!" she exclaimed, "are you here for me?"

"Uhm, a guard at the Fort...Joseph...said you're around here..." Maya replied hesitantly.

"Oh, well, I don't normally get a lot of girls requesting me!" she exclaimed excitedly as she took Maya by the hand and led her away from the bar, her cola in tow in her other hand and a look of confusion and dawning horror on her face.

"We're gonna have _SO_ much fun, sugar!" Molly squeaked.

As Maya was being led up the stairs, Boone walked into the Atomic Wrangler and saw her going up to a room with an attractive young blonde woman pulling her hurriedly along.

' _Well...I didn't see_ that _coming'_ he thought, eyes wide and a perplexed expression on his face. Sitting down at the bar, he tossed 40 caps on the table.

"Your strongest drink, bar keep" he said without looking up.

Francine Garrett didn't try to hide the distaste in her facial expression for having an NCR soldier sat at her bar, but procured a clean a shot glass and procured a half empty bottle of whiskey in front of him before throwing her towel in the sink and walking out of the bar through the doors behind her.

Boone stared at the shot glass in front of him, opened the bottle of whiskey and decided that he didn't need a glass. He took a couple of deep gulps of the drink before grimacing in pain as the drink bit back and slowly put the bottle down on the table's surface.

He stared at the rich brown translucent liquid, still sloshing around a bit from his swig. With a deep sigh he decided to put the bottle's cap back on and refrain from drinking anymore tonight. He would wait for Maya to be...done...he didn't want her going back alone and in the dark. Still...

' _I really did not see that coming'_

* * *

' _I'm going to kill Joseph!'_ thought Maya as the door closed behind her and Molly almost ripped her short robe open, revealing...well...revealing all her "goods". Maya gasped and turned her gaze away.

"Oh, are you shy sugar?" she asked teasingly as Maya's eyes burned red hot.

"Uhh...no not really" Maya said, her voice breaking from the uncomfortably embarrassing feeling she was experiencing, "mostly embarrassed".

"Oh there's nothing to be embarrassed about" said Molly, and Maya felt her hands on hers trying to pry them away from her eyes.

"Yes, yes actually there is, I wasn't expecting this" said Maya as she dodged Molly's hands.

"Oh..." Molly said, feeling a bit awkward, "but, why would you ask for me then?" Maya heard fabric rustling and assumed that Molly was getting her robe back on. She slowly peeked through her fingers and saw that Molly was back in her robes. _'Phew'_ she thought.

"One of the guards at the Mormon Fort told me to ask for you" Maya explained.

At hearing that, Molly furrowed her brow in what looked like a mix between anger and disappointment.

"The next time I see him...Oh! That man's in big trouble!"

Maya laughed and nodded her head in agreement, "From you and me both".

Molly's face softened; she looked at Maya apologetically with her head tilted slightly to one side, "I'm sorry for embarrassing you sugar" she said.

"No, don't worry about it" Maya replied, "It's not your fault".

At that, Molly's face lit up like she just got a brilliant idea.

"Wanna go and stick it to him?!" she asked, giggling.

Maya shrugged, uncertain of how Joseph would react and what Molly had in plan, but relented as she was feeling anxious to get back and wasn't keen on going out there alone after sundown.

"Great!" Molly replied excitedly and proceeded to get dressed in a pair of jeans, shirt, and faded black bomber jacket. She went to her clothes cabinet and pulled out a small revolver out of a drawer at the bottom. Maya's eyes widened.

"Err…do we really need a gun for this?" she asked, but Molly just smiled and lead Maya out of the room by the hand and down the stairs.

It was then that Maya noticed a familiar figure with a red beret in the room. _'Boone!'_ she thought. He was sitting at the bar holding a bottle of whisky in front of him and staring at it.

"Boone!" she called out to him as Molly dragged her out the door. He spun round and before he got off the stool Maya was dragged out of the establishment. This was highly unusual and Boone wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He exited the bar and chased after them.

"Hey!" he yelled at Molly, "where are you going?"

"On our way to pay Joseph a little visit" she replied happily.

Boone looked at Maya who was trying to keep up with Molly, trying not to trip, and studying Boone's slightly dazed expression.

"Are you….tipsy?" Maya asked surprised.

Boone looked at her sternly, "No" he replied tersely. That was a lie, but Maya didn't need to know.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Don't know yet, I guess we'll both find out soon" she replied.

At the entrance to the Mormon Fort, Molly let Maya go and pounded on the wooden gate.

"Joe, you come out here now!" she yelled, trying to sound mad but couldn't stifle a giggle.

The door creaked open and Joseph stood there, shotgun slung over his shoulder.

"Well it took you long e'nuff" he said with a big grin on his face, "whad'you do? Show her a good time too?" he winked.

Any hint of amusement quickly vanished from Maya's face and she could feel her ears burning.

"Oh she doesn't swing that way sugar" Molly laughed. Joseph took Molly's hand, whispered something in her ear that made her wrinkle her nose and laugh, and lead her out of the Fort.

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be, you know, doing your job?" Maya called after him, but he just waved her words away.

Maya stood there watching them walk away, dumbfounded that the only guard for the night decided to take off without waiting for a replacement.

"Come on" Boone said after a moment, walking through the entrance, "I'll take watch, if you'll keep me company".

Maya nodded and followed him to the table behind the waist high wall of sandbags. Boone gently placed his trusted rifle on the table and took out the 10mm pistol he had in his holster.

"You hungry?" he asked.

Trying to remember the last time she ate, Maya realised that all she had today was water and that Nuka Cola. Suddenly a loud growl emanated from her stomach.

"I'll take that as a yes" he said as he made his way to his tent and came out a few seconds later with two cans, a single fork, and a can opener. He sat down at the table opposite her, opened up the first can and handed it to her with the fork. Maya twisted it around to see what it was. On the front in faded black print: Pork n' Beans. Peeling back the lid she started salivating. She looked over at Boone who was having a bit of trouble trying to pry open his misshapen can of food.

"There's only one fork though" said Maya. Boone nodded but didn't say anything, still trying to open the lid.

"You don't mind sharing?" she asked, then realised at the absurdity of her question. _'It's the apocalypse Maya, you're lucky he has a fork'_ she thought, cringing.

Boone furrowed his brow, fixated on the irksome can that was giving him so much trouble. "No" he grunted as he reached for his combat knife and pried the lid with brute force until it popped open and delivered a splatter of tomato sauce on his face. Maya inhaled sharply, watching and waiting for an outburst of expletives that she could feel Boone was on the verge of uttering. Instead, he slowly put down the knife and reached into his back pocket for a handkerchief, his lips pressed tightly.

"Well.." Maya started, "…at least your sunglasses shielded you from most of the sauce"

Boone tilted his head up to face her, took off his aviators and squinted at her. _'Was that a slight smile?'_ she wondered, noticing an upward curve on the corner of his mouth like the one he displayed on the first day they met.

"You got some on your nose" she said grinning, not breaking eye contact as she plunged her fork into her can and took a bite of the… _awful_ contents. Her expression of amusement immediately shifted to regret. She handed Boone the fork, who was now smiling watching her suffer through the taste and not even trying to hide it.

"I guess misery really does like company" Maya chuckled, "this stuff is horrible! It tastes like tomato and metal"

"What do you mean?" Boone asked, taking a bite out of his food and passing her the fork.

"Well this tastes like it's been in the can for hundreds-"

"No" Boone interrupted, "not that. About misery liking company" he said. The smile was gone; his tone was serious. Maya looked at him and thought for a moment.

"…It's just a saying…" she said, not able to find any other words to explain herself, even though she could tell that Boone was miserable. Maya was miserable too, so was the Brotherhood group that found her, and so was everyone else in this timeline. But Maya couldn't…didn't want to say anything, because everyone was denying it and if she said it, the world might crumble…And she felt that this applied even more so for Boone.

She took another bite of her dinner, the metallic flavour joined by a new one: bitterness.

"Do you think I'm miserable?" Boone asked, his gaze steadily focused on her shifting eyes.

Maya didn't say anything, letting a silence spread between them for what felt like an eternity. But Boone didn't let up. He carried on staring at her, waiting for an answer as if somehow everything depended on it.

"Yes" Maya gave in, a wave of relief washing over her.

Boone was curious. No one he'd ever come across before thought he felt miserable. He was effective at hiding his emotions.

"How do you know?" he asked.

Maya shifted in her seat, feeling uncomfortable with the question as it was hitting so close to home.

"I've seen it before" she replied, shovelling another mouthful of food in and passing the fork back to Boone to try to distract him from the conversation. He didn't fall for it.

"Where?" he gently pressed. He could tell she was feeling uncomfortable, but his gut urged him to carry on.

Maya was caught off guard by these questions. She felt cornered, but she also felt a need to answer him. She realised that she still hadn't talked about this with anyone else, not the counsellor she used to see…not even Danny, who was… _is_ her best friend. Somehow she felt that maybe Boone could understand.

"My father…" replied Maya, heaving a deep sigh before continuing, "He uh…he was in the army. He died…a long time ago now…" she said, feeling a surge of grief grab her by the throat. "He was withdrawn...like you".

Boone's expression softened and he broke his gaze from Maya.

"I'm sorry" he whispered.

"No, don't be" Maya replied shaking her head, "it's not your fault….it wasn't _his_ either". Boone looked at her curiously.

She pushed her can to the side. Grief had taken her appetite away. But she decided then and there that she would tell Boone…everything. For some reason, beyond explanation, she felt like she could trust him completely. She had that feeling since the day they met.

"PTSD took him away from me." She continued, "My mom worked in a British embassy in Washington…. she was killed in a terrorist bombing" a tear rolled down her cheek.

 _'British embassy?'_ thought Boone perplexed, but let Maya carry on speaking.

"I was young at the time and too wrapped up in my own grief to see what he was going through" Maya said. "After that he took every opportunity he could to go back out there, to go on another tour. He was adamant that he was doing the right thing, that fighting and killing would somehow make it right, or avenge her...whatever…". Maya wiped away another tear.

"What happened to him?" Boone asked, although deep down he feared he already knew the answer.

Maya shrugged and stared off into the distance, as if expecting someone to appear and answer that question for her.

"He was away a lot… I didn't get to talk to him much after mom died. It was like he became a whole different person." She replied through deep breaths, it was all she could do to not break down. Breathe. "But…I think in the end something changed. It sounded as if he wasn't sure who the enemy was. In the end, he told me that he had regrets about choosing to go out there to fight instead of being home and fighting through our grief together… He took his own life…"

Hearing her story, Boone couldn't help but feel a great sympathy for her, and a connection or bond that the couldn't explain…not yet. There was one thing that still confused him…

"You mentioned your mother worked at a British embassy" he said, "I don't understand how she could have worked at an embassy for a different country, we don't have outside communication…" he stated, studying her expressions.

 _'He's bound to find out sooner or later, the truth may as well come from me'_ thought Maya, and hoped that when Nolan found out that he wouldn't be too upset with her. Boone, she felt, was the kind of person you could entrust with your deepest and darkest secrets. She heaved a sigh before delving into her own story of how she was found in the irradiated land at the site of the University by the Brotherhood, how an experiment that had gone wrong had sent her hurtling from the year 2017 into 2291 with no current explanation of how such a thing could occur. Her shock and despair at finding out she was flung into a world devastated by nuclear apocalypse, then being captured with the group that saved her almost immediately after her arrival and being subjected to a brutal interrogation. Maya spoke about the interrogator, Paladin White, who threatened to kill McNamara if she didn't provide the information White wanted. And the narrow escape that almost cost Ramos his life.

Boone just stared at Maya, eyes wide with astonishment. This was a lot of information to take in and it sounded preposterous. But somehow he felt she was telling the truth. No one in their mind, crazy or otherwise, would make up a fantasy like that. And it explained her quirks and behavior. After hearing her story, he felt it was only fitting that Maya should know his as well, unremarkable as it may be compared to hers.

"I can't imagine what that would be like…" he referred to travelling through time and the shock she experienced when she found out where she was. After a silent pause, he continued "You're right, though, about me" he said. Maya shifted her gaze up to meet his, her eyes were red and welling up with fresh tears. And for the first time after the Courier, Boone opened to another person. He told Maya about Bitter Springs and how it haunted him even now, about meeting Carla at the strip in New Vegas, moving to Novac and then having their life ripped apart when he found out that Carla and their unborn child were sold into slavery. How he tracked her down to Cottonwood Cove and found her being sold like an animal to the highest bidder, what that kind of life would have meant for her and how the only thing he could do was take her life to stop her suffering… And how much he regretted his action and that he replays it in his mind every day.

Maya's gaze didn't waver away from Boone; he spoke without falter and with such detail that Maya felt his grief like it was her own.

"So you're correct: I am miserable…. too" Boone finished.

"I'm so sorry Boone" she said, sniffing and wiping her cheeks.

"Craig" Boone replied, "please, call me Craig". After she had entrusted him with the greatest secret that could be shared, and he entrusted her with his, he felt like the barriers between them were gone. They were past that. A bond was formed between them that wouldn't be broken.

Maya met his gaze and felt a deep gratitude at hearing that.

They both let the silence spread between them, providing some respite to collect their thoughts and composure. They had been sitting there, talking for almost three hours. The sun set a while ago and the lights powered by generators were on.

"It's late…" Boone finally spoke up, "you should get some rest"

Maya nodded, rising slowly from her chair.

"Thank you, for the food" she said, looking at her half empty can of pork n' beans, "and for believing me".

"Thank you for the company" he replied, "and for telling me the truth".

Maya managed a weak smile, "Always" she replied. As she turned to walk back to her bunk bed, she heard a faint familiar song playing on the radio that made her stop in her tracks. It was the first song she heard on her PipBoy: Johnny Guitar.

"Such a sad song…" said Maya softly.

"What?" Boone asked wide eyed, his gaze snapping back to Maya. He felt his heart skip a beat.

"The song, on the radio" Maya replied. Boone's startled look worried her. "Is everything alright?" she asked.

"No…Yeah" Boone stammered, "I just…someone I cared about said the same thing once".

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" Maya asked, concerned.

Boone nodded, "I'll keep watch. You go".

"Alright" Maya nodded, "see you in the morning", she said and made her way to bed.

Sitting in the chair, Boone clutched his 10mm tightly. He couldn't shake the shiver that ran down his spine when he heard Maya's remark about that stupid song, but he also felt like he was exactly where he needed to be and that his skills would be needed…soon.

He sat in that chair the entire night, even refusing to be relieved from his self-appointed guard duty when the next merc guard came to take over the shift. His mind was swimming with thoughts of the dream he had of Carla, Cottonwood Cove…and now Maya. Whatever happened, he had to make sure she was safe.

As dawn came, he found himself drifting off, and in a dream, he remembered where he saw White's face before…

Cottonwood Cove


	9. Chapter 10: Taking Back The Valley

After her long conversation with Boone the other night, Maya had finally managed to get some sleep. She woke up feeling refreshed and well rested, her mind was already thinking more clearly. Part of her felt somewhat self-conscious that she had revealed all to Boone so freely, but then again he had done the same. She didn't image that McNamara would be pleased to find out she updated Boone on their whole situation.

 _'Well…not entirely the whole situation'_ Maya thought, as she did omit some more sensitive information about the interrogation and McNamara's goal. Still, she decided that she would keep this information on a need-to-know basis with him. She got out of bed, put her boots and jacket on and stepped out of the tent. At this point, Maya was painfully aware that she hadn't had a shower for the past 4 days. Her hair dusty and oily, her shirt stained with sweat, and her socks needed a good scrub. She ran her fingers through her dishevelled hair to detangle it enough to make a braid, which would help keep her hair out of her face and make it less noticeable that she needed a bath. Maya examined her surroundings and noticed that Boone was still sitting in the chair. She checked the time on her PipBoy, it was 07:38.

The only people who were stirring were the Followers and a guard, polishing a boot, who had his back against the wall next to the gate. Boone wasn't moving, it looked like he had fallen asleep on the chair so Maya decided not to disturb him. Instead she went to the tent adjacent to hers to check up on Ramos. The Followers had to move him around a bit to make room for other patients. Ramos had his immediate injuries treated and was improving so he was moved to a spare tent where patients with less serious injuries were being looked after. She pulled back the tent cover and saw Ramos was awake and chatting with one of the other patients, who looked to be a caravan trader.

"Hey! Finally, we have visitors" he said with enthusiasm while he turned and grinned as she entered. Maya smiled back and greeted them, then sat down on the bed next to Ramos.

"How you doing Ramos?" she asked.

"Ah, well enough. I'm about ready to hobble out of here on crutches, it's dull sitting on your ass all day" he joked, making Maya laugh.

"Well, if you're bored, I have something for you" she said as she pulled out a copy of Grognak The Barbarian and handed it to him.

"Thanks!" he said, happily taking the comic book from her and started reading through the pages, "any word from our friends?"

Maya shook her head, "Not yet, I will go and check up on them later. Just wanted to make sure you're doing alright"

Ramos nodded and waved her out, "You go and check up on them now" he looked her straight in the eyes with an urgent expression, "and tell them I'm ready to leave A.S.A.P".

Maya nodded then left to go get the radio that was in her backpack underneath her bed. She turned it on and pressed the push-to-talk button three times in quick succession, Maya and McNamara had agreed on this before he left to indicate that she needed to speak with him.

No answer. Maya anxiously waited a few minutes before trying again. This time she got a reply.

"Speak" came a voice she hadn't heard in a while. It was Irvine the pilot.

"Where's Nolan?" Maya asked.

"He has gone ahead to Hidden Valley to scout the area out, he should be back in a few hours" Irvine replied. Maya's stomach sank to hear he had gone alone.

"Could you contact him somehow? Ramos said he is ready to leave A.S.A.P."

"No can do, radio silence until he notifies us otherwise" Irvine took a short pause before continuing "But I will relay the message to him when he radios in".

"Thank you. I will keep checking my radio every half an hour to conserve battery"

"Roger. Irvine out." The pilot replied brusquely and was followed by static.

 _'A bit rude'_ thought Maya, considering Ramos was intent on speaking with McNamara immediately. There was something more going on, she could feel it.

Maya spent the next 2 hours waiting in the shade of her tent, radio in her hand. Her mind was buzzing, thoughts and memories flashing in her mind's eye. She was reliving the collider incident, trying to figure out how she got here. Thinking of the science of it all was strangely calming. Something familiar which she could control. She was so caught up she didn't notice Boone come into her tent.

"Hey" he said softly, "you alright?" he asked, breaking her train of thought.

"Oh, hey" Maya responded a little startled, "sorry I was…caught up in my head".

"Hmm" Boone sighed as he took off his aviators and handed her a bottle of water, "here".

Maya nodded in thanks and motioned for him to take a seat. He took off his beret and sat down next to her.

"So…you _do_ take your beret off" she smiled. His buzz cut hair had already grown out a bit, dark blonde hair peeking out.

"Sometimes" Boone shrugged. He looked over at her and caught her staring intently at the radio in her hands. "What is it?"

Maya sighed, wondering if she'd ever get the call from McNamara. "Just waiting for a call". They sat there in silence for a few moments, then Maya remembered something from their conversation the other night.

"Hey Craig" she said, "I have a question, about something you said last night".

"Sure" he answered, a slightly wary tone in his voice.

"Did…. did you ever tell Carla about Bitter Springs?"

Boone paused for a moment, "No…I wanted to. I just couldn't" he sighed. This information puzzled Maya: how could he not tell his wife? But…then again, if he told her what happened, she might not have looked at him the same way again.

"Do you think about Bitter Springs a lot?"

"Yeah. Always. Even when I sleep" he replied tensely. Maya understood now why he was so reluctant to get any rest. Even though these events had happened over ten years ago, it still haunted him. She felt a deep sadness for what he had gone through. Maybe…just maybe if she could go back to her time, she could prevent this from happening. And maybe Boone could still be born in this alternate timeline where he didn't have to live in an apocalyptic hell hole, but could live out his life happy and have a normal family.

"Boone…Craig" she corrected herself, "there's just one more thing I have to ask you" she said.

"Okay" he sounded hesitant.

"You said you were waiting at the Sniper's Nest before you met up with us" she said, studying him. He nodded in confirmation. "What were you waiting for?" Maya asked.

Boone paused for a while, mulling the answer to her question. He looked down at the beret in his hands, running a thumb over the insignia. It was obvious that he was puzzling the answer in his head "Tell the truth…I think this is exactly what I've been waiting for" he replied assertively, "That day you grabbed hold of me on the Vertibird. I had a feeling I was supposed to go with you" he looked up at her and their eyes met, "I was right".

A shiver went down Maya's spine. She had never met anyone who was so doggedly determined and…mysterious, to say the least. All the events in his life were leading up to this point. Maya couldn't help feel that it was more than just coincidence.

Suddenly static on the radio startled Maya, followed by McNamara's voice.

 _"Maya, come in"_ he said.

"Yes, I'm here" Maya replied. "Where are you?"

"We're 2 miles out. Pack your things and get ready to move out" he said.

Maya was startled to hear this, "What's going on?" she asked.

"Not over the radio, when I get there. McNamara out" was the final message she received.

Boone was already on his feet and gathering Maya's things to pack.

"Hey, hang on, what about your things?" she asked.

"Already packed" he replied, handing her the backpack she arrived with, "essentials: food, water, medicine in here" he advised. "I will go get Ramos ready" he said as he stepped out of the tent.

 _'Great_ ' thought Maya as she proceeded to organise her backpack.

Almost 2 hours after she got the call from McNamara, the group and Maya, followed by Boone, were well on their way back to Hidden Valley. Ramos was given another super stimpak to help heal his wounds faster so he could keep up. About a mile outside of Freeside, McNamara approached Maya and proceeded to give her the update on foot.

"On our scouting mission two days ago we saw minimal activity at Hidden Valley. We believe that White's men are clearing out of the bunker. With us not present there, and Hardin not giving us away, it looks like they've lost interest." Maya could see that he didn't really believe that but decided not to press him "they are probably going to place another Elder in charge of the bunker. But luckily for us, I know my home inside and out" Despite his clear doubts that the Brotherhood would lose interest McNamara seemed very positive, in fact Maya would have described his attitude as elated.

"What do you intend to do?" she asked.

" _We_ , Maya, we" he corrected her. "There is an underground service tunnel that leads into the lower levels of the bunker, which are only used for storage. I ordered an emergency exit to be dug out there in case we ever needed one. Looks like my forward thinking is about to pay off".

"Alright we get in, but then what? What's the plan?" Maya insisted.

"The plan is simple: get in, get all the power armor, ammunition, and weapons we can carry, and get rid of any opposition in our way. I'm getting my bunker back!" he said defiantly.

Maya admired his vigor, but couldn't help to think that McNamara was being blinded by his determination to beat White and something else that he wasn't letting Maya know. And that concerned her deeply. For now, she decided she would follow and see how events unfolded themselves. But… if things didn't go per plan, she felt she would have to come up with a new one.

McNamara moved off to the front of the group towards Ibsen, and both started speaking in hushed voices.

"Hmph" Boone grunted moving closer to Maya, "I'm not so sure about this".

"Yeah" Maya replied, keeping her eyes on McNamara and trying to listen in on their conversation, "me neither".

They had a two-day trek ahead of them, and Maya wasn't sure what was waiting for them at their destination.

"Hey" Boone said softly, gently nudging Maya with his elbow, "I've got your back. You know that, right?"

She nodded, "Yeah". Then an idea crossed her mind. "Craig, could you teach me?" she asked looking up at him.

"Huh?" he replied, confused.

"Teach me what you know" she insisted.

Boone was surprised to hear this. He was never much of a teacher, and he had reservations about teaching a dangerous skill to someone he was quite fond of. _'She could get hurt'_ he thought.

"Are you certain?" he asked.

"Yes" Maya replied positively.

Boone sighed and gave in to her request, "Alright, I'll teach you".

"Great!" Maya beamed, "when do we start?"

"Now" he answered, and proceeded to show her the basics of how to handle every weapon in his inventory.

* * *

It was gone midnight and everyone was exhausted. There was no full moon tonight and it was eerily dark and quiet. Maya dropped her backpack on the ground next to her and rested her back on the side of a large boulder. They had trekked all day and almost all night so they could make good time to reach Hidden Valley. It was slow progress as they had to make short stops along the way to avoid raiders and Jet fuelled Fiends. Maya managed to spot one of the drug addicts through Boone's scope as he was training her how to use his rifle and warned the group just in time to hide inside a derelict train car. They were stuck in that rusty metal box for the good part of an hour just waiting for the enemy to move on. They could hear their chilling conversations of murder and rape. Maya was deeply disturbed by that ordeal; she couldn't imagine what would possess someone to carry out such unspeakable acts of malice and evil. Now more than ever, sitting in almost absolute darkness except for the stars in the sky, Maya was terrified. She kept getting images in her mind of Fiends ambushing them in the middle of their sleep and butchering them…

Something rustled right next to her making her jump and reach for her knife.

"It's just me" came Boone's voice as he slowly sat down next to Maya. Her heart was pounding in her ears. The group didn't make a campfire as that would alert any "prospectors" to their location. Instead they had to make do with a cold dinner. Boone handed her a tin of cold Mac and Cheese. It smelt and tasted better than the Pork n' Beans she had the other day, but even so she was too starved to think about taste and more focused on getting some food in her stomach, even if the expiration date was 200 years ago. She thanked him between mouthfuls of macaroni, which she wolfed down in only a few minutes. Her eyes were not accustomed to such darkness, but she could see Boone's silhouette next to her. He didn't appear to be eating with the group.

"You should eat too" she said, trying to find his eyes in the darkness.

He shook his head, "I'm fine" he replied taking a sip of water from his canister. She heard his stomach growl. Undoubtedly he was trying to stifle it by drinking water.

"Craig…we've had an exhausting day and night. You're hungry, you should eat something" When he didn't move or acknowledge her comment, she reached into her backpack and pulled out a package of Salisbury steak and Fancy Lads Snack Cakes and handed it to him. Boone appeared to be annoyed at the gesture.

"Put those away, those are for emergencies" he said.

"I call this an emergency" Maya insisted, "You're starving yourself. You will be a lot more effective if you had something to eat".

He exhaled loudly, Maya guessed from frustration, but he gave in.

"Alright" he said, his voice not betraying his emotions. Maya handed him the Salisbury steak and opened the packet of snack cakes to share between them. They were the first food since Maya had arrived which smelt quite pleasant, the strong artificial cherry aroma masked the taste a little. They were like miniature muffin size cakes with a rich "jam" and "cream" filling in the centre, and there were roughly a dozen in the box. Maya could tell that Boone was restraining himself from wolfing down the food too quickly, but once she took a bite out of a cake he picked up the pace.

 _'Don't worry Boone, there's plenty for you too'_ she smiled at the thought.

Picking out two cakes, she placed them in Boone's lap before getting up and offering the rest to the others in the group. They all thanked her and took a piece. Even Paladin Watkins seemed to warm up to her.

 _'I'll have to remember to pick up another box'_ she thought amused, as if she could walk into a supermarket like she used to back home and find a packet sitting on an aisle for her.

"Remember to get some rest Maya, we're moving out before dawn" McNamara informed her as he took a piece of the dessert. She nodded and went back to sit next to Boone at the boulder. He had just finished his meal and was digging into the two lad cakes she had given him.

"McNamara says we leave before dawn" She saw him nod and then, reaching into his duffle bag, he pulled out a military blanket large enough for almost three people. He covered himself from his waist down and left a spot free next to him for Maya.

She hesitated for a moment, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the thought of trying to sleep next to another person. Maya was used to being on her own, and the prospect of even sharing a blanket made her feel nervous.

"Are you going to sleep standing up?" Boone asked flatly.

"Uhh…no" Maya replied, slowly kneeling and getting herself into a comfortable half reclined position. Boone flipped the covers over her and pushed his beret down his face to cover his eyes and folded his arms in front of his chest. Maya just lay there stiff and uncomfortable, she could feel little sharp bits of gravel poking her all over and the blanket was rough and itchy.

 _'I'm never going to get to sleep'_ she thought desperately. The rest of the group seemed to all be tucked in their sleeping bags, their breathing steady and she could see their silhouettes rising and falling as they slumbered.

With the noise of general chit chatter gone, Maya could hear the true sounds of the wasteland. It was spooky, she could hear the wind rustling through the dry brushes, a coyote's howl somewhere far off in the distance, gun shots far away, and old rusty metal billboards creaking and moaning in the wind. She shivered…

Boone stirred, moving his beret away from his face.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I can't sleep" Maya whispered. "I'm sorry I woke you"

"No, you didn't" he answered.

"You can't sleep either?" she asked curiously. She saw his head nod. "How come?"

Boone sighed, uncertain of how to reply. His mind was racing with thoughts. But Maya seemed to understand.

"I see…" she replied deciding not to press him, "your mind's keeping you busy".

"Hmm" Boone sighed sleepily in confirmation.

"Hey lovebirds, keep it down" came Ramos' voice.

Maya could feel herself go flush and she quickly pulled the blanked over her covering half her face. She felt like sinking into ground and never coming up again.

All of a sudden a series of weak white flashes lit up the horizon and a few clouds then their delayed explosions were heard. Maya felt the ground shake underneath her as she jumped out of the blanket and frantically looked around to see where it came from. Boone jumped up as well, rifle at the ready. Most of the group seemed to be unconcerned with a few stirring, sitting up and looking around for the source.

"Calm down everyone" came McNamara's hushed voice, "it's nothing to be concerned about".

"Random explosions occur in the wasteland sometimes" Ramos chipped in, "old cars with fusion reactors can sometimes blow if they sustained too much damage or have been picked clean of too many parts"

"But that sounded like a few big explosions!" Maya was quite shaken by the thought of nuclear bombs going off randomly as they walked past an old car.

"There is an old parking garage near here so sometimes they go off in groups" he reassured her. Everyone except Maya and Boone seemed to relax and get back in their sleeping bags.

"Go back to sleep everyone, you'll need all the rest you can get for tomorrow" McNamara instructed, getting back to his sleeping position.

Maya sat back down but didn't want to get to sleep. Deadly mutated animals lurking in the night, raiders and fiends that could jump them if they were spotted, and now nuclear timebombs. Maya was terrified.

"Hey" Boone whispered, as if sensing her fear, "come here" he motioned next to him.

Maya shook her head, adamant about staying awake and keeping watch.

Boone sighed, sympathising with her. ' _If you won't come to me, I'll come to you'_ he thought as he inched next to her and placed an arm around her shoulder. She flinched and looked at him wide eyed.

"We can't go to sleep!" she exclaimed then quickly covered her mouth realising how loud she had just been. Then through her teeth whispered "who knows what's out there".

"Yes we can" he insisted, and pulled her closer to him. She didn't resist this time, but her skin was cold to the touch. Boone pulled the blanket around them and reclined his back to the boulder behind. He tried to think of something that would distract her, then realised there was something vital he didn't teach her from his survival training. He reached into his left pocket and fished out a Broc flower and xander root.

"Here" he grunted, showing her the contents. He felt her body twist to face him and her cold fingers as she picked up the flower and root to study them.

"These two ingredients are very important" he started, "when you combine the Broc flower and xander root together, you can create a healing powder".

"How do you combine them" Maya asked curiously, sniffing the flower.

"You have to dry them out first over the campfire" Boone instructed, "but you have to make sure that you don't cook them, otherwise they won't be effective. Then once dried, both can be ground into powder together. They are perfect for sterilising wounds and getting rid of infections" he said.

"I'll remember that" Maya replied.

 _'It worked'_ thought Boone. He could feel the tension in her muscles relaxing slowly and she sunk into his shoulder.

"Craig?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"I know this is probably a stupid question, but…Are you ever afraid?" she asked.

He thought for a second about his answer. The last time he was afraid was when he found out Carla was kidnapped and sold into slavery by the Legion. After Cottonwood Cove, he didn't seem to fear anything… He went into battle at Hoover Dam with the Courier without any regard for his own life as he had nothing to lose. After that battle some have said that he was incapable of feeling fear, others made passing comments that he was recklessly trying to court death. That was true… until he met Maya. But he didn't want to worry her.

"No, not really" he replied.

"How are you not afraid?" she asked, amazed.

Boone gave her a slight reassuring smile, "Because I have my training, and I'm ready to face anything that comes our way" he comforted her.

"Huh…" Maya mused, "So you're a badass"

Boone looked at her amused, "You think I'm a badass?" he asked, trying to restrain himself from grinning. He felt her head nod against his chest.

"Then you must be a badass in training then" he quipped.

"Honestly, you two, shall I prepare a romantic meal?" joked Ramos quietly, "Some more fancy lads cakes perhaps?"

"No thanks, Ramos" Maya replied.

"Don't think I didn't see you give him two pieces Maya" said Ramos teasingly.

"Watch it, next time you won't get any from me" she teased back and heard a couple of the group chuckle.

"Alright, since no one is sleeping, do you all want to pack up and start marching again?" McNamara piped up and everyone got quite again. "Didn't think so" he mumbled as he lay back down.

Maya felt a lot better now. The group seemed to be in good spirits despite their current condition, and they seemed to be warming up to her. She felt herself relax and slowly drift off to sleep, Boone's arm still around her shoulder.

About an hour later, the rest of the group were all sound asleep, no one was stirring. Boone looked down at Maya, who was finally sleeping peacefully with her head on his chest and her arm wrapped around his waist. He felt something he thought he lost a long time ago: hope and…companionship?

' _How could I let this happen?'_ he thought as the realisation sunk in. He felt a tightening in his chest and throat as sadness gripped him and his eyes began to well up. Maya told him that all she wanted was to go home, he knew that that would mean he would never see her again. His best bet was for Maya to return to her time, and possibly change the outcome of the future. Although he couldn't see how just one person could stop an apocalypse. Maya had tried to explain the butterfly effect to him that night at the Old Mormon Fort, and maybe she was right – maybe if you change one small thing in the past, you can create a massive change further into the future. So, if she is correct, and she does make a change, then Boone's life might turn out completely differently…

Or he might not even be born.

He mulled that last thought over in his head, _'Might never be born…What is one life compared to billions?'_ but if that were true then Carla might not exist either. That thought stabbed at him and didn't know how he felt about it. Shaking his head slightly to free himself of the feelings he tried to think clearly _'If she gets a chance to change this timeline by going back, she should take it.'_

Boone decided that he would have to tread carefully around Maya from now on and not exacerbate the situation. She didn't have to know about how he felt, and he wouldn't tell her. She needed to get back home, and he wasn't going to stand in her way.

He pulled his beret over his eyes and rested his head on the hard boulder, waiting for sleep to take him while the stars danced in the dark indigo sky.


	10. Chapter 11: Death Is No Friend Of Mine

The horizon was starting to show the first hints of light. Dawn was approaching.

Boone jerked awake at the sound of footsteps and sleeping bags rustling as the group was prepping their items for their trek. He noticed that Maya was gone.

"Maya?" he called with some clear concern in his voice.

"She's gone with Watkins to clean up" McNamara answered, giving him a look that was a cross between distaste and disappointment. The rest of the group began changing into their original Brotherhood clothing that they wore before they entered the Old Mormon Fort. McNamara was already dressed in his appropriate Brotherhood uniform. He strode over to Boone; there were a couple of points he needed to clarify with him.

"I…appreciate your concern, and care, for her" he began, "but…I have to wonder…why you're still here?".

Boone was on his feet and met McNamara's gaze. "You forget that you still need my help" Boone reminded him.

"Do I?" McNamara tested him, "we've got everything under control. In case you haven't noticed, we're about to take back Hidden Valley".

Boone didn't like the overconfidence in McNamara's attitude. After all, nothing was certain.

"You don't know that, you just have a small piece of intel about what is going on there" Boone replied, "For all you know, this is a trap, and they're using your belief that they don't know about the service tunnel to lure you in".

"Ibsen and I are the only ones who know about that tunnel, and we made sure that information was encrypted in our system"

"Yeah? How do you know that they didn't crack your encryption?" Boone interjected, "They had an entire unit there, probably turned your bunker inside out".

McNamara didn't appreciate his tone or the challenge on his authority. But Boone is an outsider and hardly knows anything about the Brotherhood, so he let it slide this one time.

"Boone, I realise you have reservations. But I don't. I _know_ they won't find it. _This_ is the plan. Either you're with us…or not", McNamara stated, "If you're not, then I suggest you leave".

"I'm here to help Maya get home…to her own time" Boone said defiantly, letting McNamara know his big secret.

McNamara turned to face him, his eyes bulging with anger, "What did you say?!"

Taking his aviators off to look McNamara squarely in the eyes, Boone re-iterated "I said I know Maya is from the past, and she wants to go home."

McNamara's face was burning, he was furious. _'How could she tell him?!'_ he thought angrily. This was supposed to be a secret, who knows who he told now, it probably reached NCR headquarters.

"Who else have you shared this information with?" McNamara whispered heatedly, moving to within an inch of Boone's face "Huh? Did you tell your NCR buddies about this? I bet they'd love to interrogate Maya, get her to do their bidding"

The fact that McNamara would even implicate that Boone would risk Maya's safety made him doubt his true intentions. If that was true, he and McNamara were going to have a serious problem.

"No one. You of all people should know that" Boone replied with a cold threatening glare. "My presence here is to help Maya get back, I have no hidden agenda. But if I find out that you have some other thing planned for her, I'm going to do a lot more than exchange empty threats with you". Boone could see a vein bulging on McNamara's forehead.

"Fine" he whispered, "but if I find out you've jeopardised my people and this mission…I'll kill you myself"

"Only make threats you intend to keep" Boone replied, his expression defiant and cold.

They didn't realise that the entire group had stopped what they were doing and were watching them. Some had their hands placed on their weapons, ready to act if necessary; and Maya was standing less than ten feet away from them with Watkins. Her skin was pale and her eyes wide with shock; she heard everything.

McNamara turned to face Maya and threw her an angry glare as he stormed off, deliberately bumping into her with his shoulder as he passed her by.

The group silently collected their belongings and started marching again towards Hidden Valley, with McNamara and Ibsen leading the group at the front and Maya and Boone trailing at the back.

About three hours into their trek they reached Scorpion Gulch. There they found a hatch cleverly concealed on the ground. McNamara entered a seven digit security number, unlocked the service hatch, and ushered them all in.

They descended down a metal ladder about ten feet before reaching the bottom. Red emergency lights illuminated a long concrete corridor, although some of them appeared to be out further down.

"This is it. This should lead us straight into the bunker" said Ibsen, checking his PipBoy.

"Come on" McNamara urged, leading the group forward into a jog.

About half way through the tunnel, Maya heard Ibsen call out in the front.

"Wait!" Maya could hear what sounded like Geiger counter clicking.

"What's going on?" McNamara asked.

"I….I don't know" Ibsen sounded confused, "There shouldn't be radiation here but…there is". He studied his PipBoy, "Wait here" he told them as he took a couple of steps forward. The Geiger counter clicks increased steadily with every few steps he took, until he was about forty feet away from them. They could all hear the echo of the clicks going off rapidly and consistently.

"This can't be possible" yelled Ibsen, "the entire area is flooded with radiation; we can't go past this point".

Then they heard a terrifying gurgling sound up ahead. Ibsen froze.

"Ghouls! Get out of there!" yelled McNamara, but before Ibsen could move a horrifyingly disfigured creature attacked him from the darkness, tackling Ibsen to the ground and proceeded to pummel him with its fists. Maya gasped, it looked like a terrifyingly disfigured human with no hair, dead eyes, and mottled and burnt skin that appeared to be glowing slightly and it didn't appear to have any lips…

"Oh my god…" she gasped, petrified.

Boone pulled out his 10mm and with pinpoint precision shot the thing between the eyes. McNamara ran to Ibsen and helped him up.

"Come on, run!" he yelled as they heard more zombie like gurgling and moaning down the hall.

The group ran back the way they came and up the stairs, the ghouls in hot pursuit just behind them.

McNamara and Boone took the rear, shooting down the abominations that were right on their tail. Watkins was the first to climb up the stairs, followed by Maya. The Paladin opened up the hatch and flooded the tunnel with bright light. All of a sudden…

 ** _*Bang*_**

Watkins groaned and choked as she reached for her chest. A splatter of hot red blood covered Maya from head to waist just behind her.

"NO!" Maya gasped, trying to grab hold of her as her body crumpled forward, leaving her legs dangling down the shaft. The bullet went through her heart, she was dead. Before Maya could react another gunshot was heard and the bullet this time ricocheted off the wall behind Maya and into her shoulder. She gasped in pain and shock as her hand impulsively let go of the metal bar she was holding onto. If Ramos hadn't caught her, she would have fallen all the way down.

"Sniper! Down, down!" yelled Ramos to those following behind him as another gun shot was heard outside and a twang as the bullet bounced off the metal hatch.

Boone and McNamara had almost taken out all of the Ghouls, there was only one left and they despatched it together without much trouble using their combat knives.

Maya was slowly lowered down, along with Watkins' lifeless body. She was starting to feel the full force of her injury, and she couldn't help but scream out in agony.

Still panting from the fight, Boone turned around and his worst nightmare was revealed: seeing Maya covered in blood and cradling a gunshot wound.

"Maya!" he called out, reaching down to have a look at her injury. His eyes were wide with anger and deadly intent. "Did you see them?" he asked calmly.

Maya nodded, "A silhouette. On top of the rock face on the right. Saw the flash of his muzzle" she gasped.

"Okay, good" he said, "let's see that wound" he turned her over gently to see the back of her shoulder while Ramos cradled her head. Maya gritted her teeth in pain, refusing to cry out despite the tears rolling down her cheeks.

 _'Shit…_ ' thought Boone. No exit wound. The bullet had fractured when it bounced off the concrete and multiple shards went through her shoulder blade and were stuck in the muscle. If they couldn't get the shards out, she could develop an infection and go into septic shock. And if by some miracle she didn't get an infection, then the metal could carry on doing damage to her tissues underneath every time she moved that arm.

"Alright" Boone exhaled and turned Maya back, "you're going to be okay" he tried to reassure her. Taking his canister of water out, he poured some water over her face to wash the blood off. Her hair though was covered in Watkins' blood. She started sobbing as the blood came off her face.

"Shh, it's okay, hey" he cradled her, "we're gonna get out of here, don't worry".

"She's dead. She's dead, I couldn't help her" Maya gasped, repeating the sentence over and over. Boone recognised the shock she was going through and tried to calm her down.

"Hey, look at me. I'm gonna get the son of a bitch, you hear me?" a rage burned in his eyes for those that had attacked his group. "I'm gonna go put a bullet in his brain" he muttered through gritted teeth.

McNamara stood next to them, bloodied and panting from the fight with the ghouls, a desolate and defeated expression on his face.

"You were right" he managed to say, "it was a trap…I should have… listened".

Boone didn't have the patience to deal with him right now. He pulled out his combat knife that was lodged in the skull of one of the ghouls, grabbed a grenade from his duffle bag and holstered his 10mm and furiously made his way up the ladder. He leapt out the hatch and immediately heard gunfire and a bullet zip past over his head.

 _'You fucking amateur, I see you'_ he thought as he sprinted in his direction. Another gunshot and this time the bullet landed less than a hand's breadth from his toes in a plume of dust and debris. Boone pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it with such force above the sniper's head.

Two seconds later came the booming explosion, followed by a scream and thud as the sniper fell from the rock face. Boone launched himself at the attacker who was still alive and scrambling to get away.

"Can't run from me!" yelled Boone as he throttled him to the ground. The sniper was dressed in a black uniform with wires attached to it. The cloth seemed to flicker, as if it was an adaptive camouflage.

 _'Stealth-boy suit huh? Coward'_ Boone thought as he drew his knife. He wasn't an expert in hand to hand combat, but he wanted to hurt him with his own two hands before he put a bullet in him. It seemed more…personal that way.

The sniper drew his dagger out as well and staggered to his feet, taking a hunched fighting stance.

Boone launched into him with his left fist followed rapidly by a sideways swipe with his knife, but the sniper dodged both blows. He tried to trip Boone by hooking a foot to the back of his ankle, but Boone twisted away and threw an uppercut that met its target perfectly, knocking the enemy to the ground. Almost snarling, Boone reached down with both hands and grabbed him gruffly, pulling him to his feet. But the sniper wasn't unconscious and he retaliated with a hard head-butt and kick to the stomach. Boone was winded but didn't go down, he staggered away from the attacker and drew his 10mm. The sniper dodged just as Boone pulled the trigger and lashed out with his knife, slicing into his arm. Boone grunted in pain and took another couple of steps back, and just in time too. The enemy slashed at his face in downward diagonal motion, catching a bit of his forehead, eyebrow, and cheek. Blood dribbled down his face and threatened to go into his eye and blind him. Boone's hand reached up and cupped his cut with his left hand, collecting the blood in his palm. As the attacker made another attempt to thrust his blade in between Boone's ribs, a rage filled his entire body. He tossed his blood that had collected in his palm at the enemy's exposed eyes. It was the perfect distraction. The sniper closed his eyes and missed his target. Boone grabbed the attacker's wrist and flipped him onto his back so hard he heard the bones in his arm snap. As the sniper's grip failed, Boone caught the dagger mid-air, twisted it around and plunged it into his enemy's shoulder. A pained cry erupted from the man and he started to cough up blood.

"You're mine" Boone whispered spitefully as he drew his 10mm, took aim, and looked down into his terrified enemy's eyes as he pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed through the valley, sending crows near the area cawing away.

Boone panted as he watched his eyes glaze over and a crimson stain spread in the dirt behind his head, like a halo for the wicked.

"Urngh" he grunted in pain as the adrenaline surge started to wane and he became painfully aware of his wounds. He scanned the area for any other possible attackers, but there was no one else there.

He stepped over the corpse and made his way back to the group.

* * *

McNamara stood alone close to the precipice overlooking hidden valley bunker. He had to take two shots of Rad Away before he embarked and down a pill of RadX every ten minutes he spent there. The area was decimated, probably with multiple mini nukes.

 _'Those must have been the explosions we heard last night'_ he thought despondently as he gazed into the crater where his home once stood. Not only that, but it looked like White had hidden rad emitters all around the compound, making it impossible to enter what was left…if there was anything left, of the bunker.

Ghouls had claimed the site, attracted by the radiation, and he could see centaurs making their way down from the base of Black Mountain. Re-taking the bunker would be suicide…

McNamara made his way away from the valley and back to the group. He had no idea what they were going to do now.

* * *

"Wh-what do you mean it's been levelled?" Ibsen asked wide eyed.

"There's nothing left…" McNamara replied, "No bunker, no power Armor, no weapons, no ammo…."

Everyone in the group were shocked; some were wide eyed, covering their mouths with their hands, others were staring down at their feet numb with the new information. The only ones there who seemed to be in better control of their emotions were Ramos, and Boone.

"So in other words, we're royally screwed" Ramos added with his usual cheerful manner completely dissolved. Everyone was silent for what felt like an eternity.

McNamara was trying to think of what to do next. They had no spare food, nowhere to hide, no shelter…

 _'Shelter…That's it!_ ' he thought as he remembered something from his days as a scout.

"We need to get to shelter" he announced to the group, "There's an old safe house I set up many years ago when I was first assigned to Hidden Valley. It was a secret location that I didn't even register in our database in case of infiltration. It's not much but…it'll give us a place where we can regroup and decide where to go from here". He regarded his ragged group apologetically, saddened by the fact that they had all lost their homes because of his desperation to change the past. If he had just let it be…

"Okay…everyone get your things, we're heading out" said Ramos, as slowly everyone tried to recover from their shock and fumbled for what little things they had left with them.

"What about Watkins?" asked Maya, who was sitting on a rock while Boone was busying himself pouring alcohol on her wound and bandaging it up, making her wince in pain. "We have to bury her…" Her eyes were trying to meet his, pleading; but McNamara was too distraught and shocked to meet her gaze.

"No time…we must keep going…" he insisted and started busying himself, grabbing as many of their bags as he could.

"We can't just let her _rot_ in there! With those things…Please…Nolan" she begged, "She deserves better than this".

"Yes, yes she does…she deserved to live and not…suffer for the mistakes I made…for my idiotic overconfidence in thinking there was any chance of getting our home back. But she's gone…I can't change that. And I know she would want us to get to a safe place as quickly as possible, and not waste precious time on things we can't change" he said the last sentence with bitterness in his voice, "We move out, now. Those are my orders". He made his way to Ibsen, who was still shaken by his ordeal with the ghouls in the tunnel and was developing a couple of deep red and purple bruises on his head and one side of his face, to mark the destination on his PipBoy.

 _'So that's that, huh?'_ she thought in disbelief. Maya understood the urgency in their need to get to this safe house, but leaving Watkins out in the hot sun to rot with the zombies was wrong.

"Come on, up you get" grunted Boone, helping her up by placing her good arm around his shoulders to lift her up and his arm around her waist to balance her. She winced in pain but didn't make a sound.

The group now only consisted of five individuals: McNamara, Ramos, Ibsen, Boone, and Maya; not counting Irvine who had stayed with the Vertibird about two hour walk North East of Freeside to conserve fuel. As Maya tried to keep up with the group that was moving out, she began to lose hope of ever going back home and seeing her friends...and Danny...again.

 _'Oh Danny_ ' she thought, _'I hope you're alright…'_


	11. Chapter 12: 2017

A week had passed after Maya's sudden disappearance. Daniel and everyone else who had been in the lab had been kept in quarantine at the UCSF Medical Centre. Whatever happened in the collider lab had released a large dose of unknown radiation that had set off the alarms in the lab. Daniel was itching to get back to the lab and figure out what went wrong. He had been replaying the events in his mind repeatedly, scrutinising every detail and trying to corroborate his knowledge with the others. Because of the nature of the accident and the fact that there was no trace of her body, Maya was proclaimed dead after an investigation that only took three days. It disgusted Daniel how nonchalant the investigation was with regards to Maya's life. The University appeared to be more concerned about saving face and maintaining its pristine status rather than get to the bottom of things. Daniel had found all this out when he got a call from Maya's distraught supervisor on the day of his discharge from quarantine, who had explained everything that had happened while he was locked up.

"The investigation reached a dead end. They declared Maya dead at the scene" she sobbed over the phone, "They won't pursue this any further. The news are going crazy over this…" The words were still fresh in his mind. But he wasn't going to let this slide. He didn't give a damn about the University's image and PR effort to diminish the severity of what happened, he was going to do his own investigation into the matter. Maya's supervisor agreed to meet with him after he signed out of the hospital that evening and they were going to go over the events that took place in the lab and compare it with some of Maya's notes that her supervisor had managed to prevent from being confiscated. It wasn't much, but Daniel felt he could help fit in the missing information from what he remembered from their conversations. He had also managed to convince Dr. Buser to aid them in their investigation. They were going to have to be careful though, as a memo had been circulated throughout the University warning all who had been present in the lab that day not carry out a private exploration into the events or to talk to the media. No explanation or reason was given as to why, only that those who disobeyed these rules would be "dealt with accordingly".

"Here are your discharge papers Mr. Hadden" a nurse at the reception desk said as she handed a clipboard to Daniel with some paperwork to fill out.

Daniel thanked her, filled out the forms, collected his things and walked out of the hospital. He was tired and sore from all the medical exams he had to go through, and his arms were dotted with dark blue and purple bruises from all the poking and prodding that was done to him. However, none of the doctors could find anything wrong with him, except for slightly elevated thyroid levels, but that wasn't enough to keep him in.

His cell phone rang. It was Maya's supervisor.

"Hello. I'm in the parking lot" he answered. A couple of minutes later he saw her car pull up. He got in and they made their way to his apartment.

* * *

"This doesn't make any sense…" Maya's supervisor, Dr. Ali, commented. She was reading one of Maya's old personal log books, the one she used to make comments on her findings and write down important equations.

Daniel asked to have a look and found the problem.

"Yes that's a mistake I picked up on before" he stated and wrote down the correct equation for Dr. Ali.

They had been digging into Maya's notes and books for over 8 hours. The sun was beginning to rise.

"Damn it! What's the time?" asked Dr. Ali, suddenly realising that they had lost all track of time.

"Gone 05:30" he murmured absentmindedly, still staring at Maya's log book.

Dr. Ali got up and started frantically packing her things into her handbag. "I'm going to be late" she grunted.

Daniel looked at her confused, there were no more classes to teach and there was no reason for her to be in such a rush so early in the morning. Especially since the department effectively had their hands tied after the accident.

"What for?"

"There's a meeting at 7 to discuss the accident with the University board" she replied, "Apparently, it's urgent".

Daniel nodded and carried on with his analysis. He wasn't having much luck with the notes so he was considering going with Dr. Ali to the University and get into the collider lab.

"Hey, mind giving me a lift?"

She nodded and they both departed.

* * *

"Excuse me, sir" came the voice of a security guard in front, "You're not allowed in this area, please make your way back".

"That's Dr. Hadden" Daniel corrected him, "and yes I am allowed. I work in this lab"

"This area is strictly off limits. Please return to your office" the guard warned with his hand outstretched in front of him denying Daniel access.

"Come on, you guys had a week to deal with this" he protested. "I have data and equipment I need to carry on with my work" One way or another he was getting into that lab.

"That's not for me to determine, Dr. Hadden. Please leave. Now. Before I have you removed" the guard threatened.

Daniel scoffed, but decided he didn't want to cause any trouble, much less be in trouble himself. Annoyed that he was thwarted so quickly, he turned away and made his way into the cafeteria for some food and a place to think. Something about being there always helped him solve problems…although the truth was more likely that it was a place of inspiration as he was always with Maya there when they were trying to solve complicated problems.

 _'We made a pretty good team together…'_ he pondered sorrowfully as he walked through the empty corridors. _'I wish you were here Maya'_

He entered the empty cafeteria, got himself a cup of coffee, and made his way to the table he normally sat at. It felt odd to be sitting in the same spot without her…

Cupping the hot cup of coffee in his hands, he stared into the black liquid pensively. If Maya were here, he'd probably make a quip about holding a singularity in his hands…

 _'A singularity…'_ thought Daniel absentmindedly, but his thoughts were cut short by the sounds of footsteps coming towards him. He lifted his head and to his surprise, saw Dr. Ali making her way to him. He looked at his watch to check the time, it read 07:40.

"Quick meeting I take it?" Daniel asked, looking up at her as she pulled up Maya's chair and sat down with an exhausted sigh. "What did they say?"

"We have a big problem…" Dr. Ali began, and explained the whole meeting to Daniel. She informed him of the limited investigation information they were given, that this accident gained the interest from a government organisation, and that their equipment and Maya's research was being confiscated. "And to make matter's worse, we've lost free access to the collider lab" she finished, looking quite pale and stricken with the information herself.

Daniel was confused, why would anyone want to take over a University owned particle collider lab, it wasn't particularly special. Let alone all of Maya's work and notes?

 _'She must have stumbled across something'_ thought Daniel, _'or they were looking for her too'._

"But that's not all…" Dr. Ali carried on, "All the staff in the collider lab are being let go"

"What?!" Daniel whispered in disbelief.

Dr. Ali nodded, her hands trembling slightly as she drank her tea. "The University no longer has rights and privileges over the collider."

"Wh-what? Why? They can't do this!" Daniel yelled, getting out of his seat. "What about employment contracts and basic rights!?"

"Shhhh keep your voice down and sit!" Ali whispered, grabbing Daniel by the hand and guiding him back down in his chair.

"How could the board let this happen?!"

"Let it happen? They practically rolled over on their backs after they found out how much the University was going to be 'compensated' for the collider" she replied. Daniel cocked his head.

"We've been bought?!" a look of disgust crossing his face.

Silence swallowed them as Daniel took some time to let the information settle.

"So…. what do we do now?" he asked.

"We have no choice", Ali shrugged.

A despondent look crossed Daniel's face, "I need to get in that lab, Nora" he insisted, "I need to find out what happened to Maya".

Dr. Ali nodded, "I'll see what I can do…. perhaps we can talk with Gerard. He will still have access, though limited, into the lab to get the information we need"

This was a lot of information to take into all at once. Daniel felt like he was kicked in the head and the stomach: out of ideas and winded.

Dr. Ali finished her tea and stood up from her chair.

"I should make my way back, there's a lot of paperwork to go through…" she said defeatedly.

Daniel nodded, taking a sip of coffee and staring into the distance lost in his thoughts.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked, concerned.

Taking a slow shuddering breath, he shook his head, "Not until I find out what happened…. Until I find Maya".

"She's gone Daniel, there's no way she could have survived"

Daniel shook his head defiantly, "No, we don't know that. I'm going to do everything I can to find her"


	12. Chapter 13: Safehouse

"Set her down over there", Ramos pointed Boone hurriedly to a bunk bed in the corner as McNamara shut and locked the reinforced metal door behind them. They had managed to get into the safehouse without much trouble. To Boone's surprise, it was located close to Novac, next to the toxic dump site.

 _'Makes sense'_ Boone thought, considering the area near the toxic dump site is radioactive and populated by aggressive geckos that would be more than enough deterrent for anyone from entering that area. Still… he wondered whether Manny was still in Novac keeping watch inside the dinosaur's head. He also wondered what happened to his room…the room where he and Carla lived in. It felt like such a long time ago…

The safehouse was small, comprising of two bunk beds, a limited ammo and weapons cache, some food and plenty of water. There was a radio and a small couch in the corner to the left of the entrance door. It would be enough to suit their immediate needs, but it was not intended for long term stay.

"Ah!" Maya groaned in pain as Boone set her down.

"Sorry" he apologised as he turned her on her side to examine her shoulder in better detail. He could see a fresh red patch on the bandages he had put only two hours ago. The bleeding was slowed but not stopped, which meant that the shards were in there causing more damage. He pressed his lips, knowing he had to tell Maya that they needed to remove these shards if she wanted to have proper use of that arm and let it heal.

"I'm going to have to pull your shirt up Maya" he said. She nodded in agreement and without protest she turned on her stomach.

McNamara knelt next to Boone as he gently pulled the back of Maya's shirt up to reveal her freshly bleeding shoulder. He winced as he saw a bit of fresh blood trickle down her back as the bandage was removed.

"How you doing Maya?" asked McNamara.

"It's sore…Feels like it's burning" Maya replied.

Boone turned to McNamara and asked him to look through their supplies and find a doctor's bag while he cleaned the wound. He complied and began his search while Boone stayed next to her.

"Don't worry, we'll get this fixed in no time" he comforted her.

"It's bad, isn't it?" she asked, her worried voice slightly muffled by the pillow.

"Nothing we can't handle" he replied, hoping he was right…

McNamara couldn't find a doctor's bag, but he did find a scalpel, medical tweezers and clamps, and a surgical pan. Everything he found needed to be sterilised before it could be used. He took out a pot from the crafting station, filled it with purified water, and boiled the tools for a good half an hour, just to be on the safe side and make sure it was sterile. Once that task was complete, he went over to Maya with the surgical tools and knelt to have a look at her.

"How's it looking?" he asked.

"Still bleeding", Boone replied while cleaning the area with a sterile cloth and vodka. He gave McNamara a grim look.

"Alright, let's have a look" McNamara replied. Considering he had the most medic field training out of the entire group, it was down to him to treat Maya. Ramos and Ibsen were standing off to one side, Ramos slowly pacing back and forth while Ibsen was observing the procedure. He had read a lot of medical text books while he was in the Hidden Valley bunker. Although it wasn't his field, he made it a point to study as much information as possible. And even though he couldn't physically help with the process of removing the shrapnel, he wanted to be keep track of everything so he could at least provide some verbal advice from his study.

"Okay, we're going to have to cut her shirt open a bit so I can get a better look", McNamara stated, grabbing a pair of scissors and cutting Maya's t-shirt from her sleeve to the neckline. The cloth fell away and revealed the extend of the damage. McNamara could see seven diagonal entry wounds centred around her shoulder blade. Some blood was beginning to coagulate around the edges, but the entire area appeared inflamed. He could see some blue capillaries peeking through the skin. McNamara inhaled sharply; these were the initial signs of infection. He needed to get the shards out fast.

Maya saw from the look on McNamara's face that the verdict wasn't good. She felt Boone's hand clasp around hers and squeeze gently in support.

McNamara looked down at her, trying to remain positive, "As soon as we get these shards out you'll feel better." He exhaled loudly as he reached into the surgical pan and picked up the scalpel. "We don't have any anaesthetic with us to numb the area. I'm not going to lie to you Maya…. This will hurt a lot." he said seriously.

Upon seeing the scalpel, Maya's eyes widened in fear, her breathing quickened and her heart began to pound in her ears. She felt her hands go cold and clammy and squeezed Boone's hand, but she nodded her head in understanding; there was no other option. "Do it" she sighed.

"Boone, hold her" McNamara instructed, throwing Boone a worried look. Boone nodded and placed his free hand between Maya's shoulder blades. At this point, Maya was panting with fear. She was biting her lip so hard in anticipation of the pain that she could taste metal…

McNamara gently pushed the scalpel through the first cut. Maya grimaced in pain and buried her head in the pillow, but refrained from vocalising the pain. It wasn't long before his scalpel met resistance from the shard. With the medical tweezers, he slowly removed the piece and dropped it in the surgical tray.

"One down, six to go, eh?!" McNamara said encouragingly, "let's hope they're all this easy to remove.

Maya couldn't help but laugh nervously as relief filled her body from the temporary respite of McNamara's scalpel.

"Okay, here we go again" he said as he tackled the second. He managed to remove it with the same ease as the previous. The third and fourth were a bit more troublesome and caused Maya a lot of pain. They were larger and had embedded themselves into her bone, he had to spread the surrounding tissue to pry the shrapnel out. Getting the last one out Maya couldn't hold back a pained scream, making Ibsen shudder. She was getting hot and cold flashes and broke out in a cold sweat.

"Maybe… maybe we take a little break?" suggested Ibsen, bringing her some water to drink.

McNamara nodded in agreement, taking the glass of water from Ibsen and helping turn Maya around so she could have a drink.

Boone held her head up at a slight angle so the water didn't spill on her.

"Wait" Maya said as she felt her t-shirt threaten to expose more skin than she wanted, "my shirt's gonna fall away" she said.

"Don't worry over that, you're among friends, no one's going to think about that" replied McNamara as he tipped the glass for her.

"Speak for yourself, grandpa" joked Ramos, his quip making Maya chuckle and spill some water down her front. Boone's ears turned red and he slowly twisted his head to face Ramos, an unamused expression on his face.

"Ramos!" chided McNamara, but there was a clear grin on his face, "Not now".

"I'm just sayin…" he shrugged as he stopped pacing and sat down on the couch. His attempt to cheer the group up a bit worked.

"That's okay…you can buy me a new shirt Ramos" Maya winked at him. Boone looked down at her, incredulous that she would make jokes in her serious condition.

"Alright, jokes over. Let's finish this, we've only got two left" McNamara replied as he put the glass of water on the side table next to him, turned Maya onto her stomach, and picked the scalpel back up, making Maya's heart pound again.

The searing pain of the scalpel sent waves of hot and cold flashes through her body, making the muscles in her back quiver slightly. She bit back a yelp of pain as she felt the scalpel reach her bone and start scraping. _'Just two more…just two more…'_ she kept telling herself as tears streamed down her face, making wet patches on her pillow.

"Hold her, please" McNamara asked Boone, apprehension in his voice. Boone placed his hand on Maya's back and squeezed her hand to let her know he was there.

The sixth piece was proving difficult to remove. McNamara's face was contorted in concentration and strain from trying to pry the metal out. But it wouldn't budge. The tweezers couldn't get enough purchase on it as it was too deeply embedded in her shoulder. He exhaled and decided to check the last one. This time his scalpel didn't even meet with the metal. Instead, he felt it pass through and into the bone. It passed through her shoulder and was stuck on the other side.

"Fuck" he muttered under his breath as Maya groaned in pain. "Maya, I have to turn you over" he said and he and Boone gently turned her on her back. "Boone, I'm going to have to ask you to hold Maya down securely" McNamara instructed as he prepared his scalpel to make an incision.

"W-wait!" Maya stuttered in fear, "what are you doing?"

"The last two pieces of shrapnel have gone through your bone" he replied, gazing apologetically into her terrified eyes, "I need to make a cut on the opposite side of the entry wound to get them out"

"Can't you get it out another way?" she pleaded, but McNamara shook his head.

"…Okay…okay…" she panted, trying to muster as much courage as she could.

Ibsen came up to McNamara and knelt opposite him, remembering something from his medical journal readings.

"If you're going to do this, avoid the points here and here" he pointed to a position on the top of Maya's shoulder and bottom in a diagonal path. "This is the suprascapular nerve and the lower subscapular nerve" then he drew a diagonal line from the top of her shoulder joint down the length of her shoulder, "that's the pectoralis minor tendon" and a final point at the top of Maya's shoulder, where the subclavian artery snaked through to provide blood to her arm.

McNamara was sweating almost as much as Maya, "Glad you're here Ibsen" he thanked him. Taking a deep breath in, McNamara gripped his scalpel and drove it down into Maya's shoulder.

This was the worst physical pain Maya had ever experienced in her life. She couldn't hold back this time and a loud scream erupted from her as the knife cut into and through her flesh. Her vision was going funny; she could see spots and she was starting to experience tunnel vision. She felt Boone pressing his weight down on her, trying to hold her still, but she could also feel herself going numb; the sensation spreading from her shoulder and through her body like watercolour paint on a wet canvas. As McNamara spread the tissue with the medical clamps and grabbed hold of the shrapnel lodged in her bone, she felt herself begin to pass out and gave in to the darkness that was swallowing her.

* * *

 _Through the darkness, Maya heard a soft woman's voice, lovingly humming a familiar lullaby tune. She felt like she was being cradled and rocked gently side to side._

 _"Baby mine, don't you cry" came the soft voice, "Rest your head, close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine"._

 _Maya opened her eyes and her mother's face started coming into focus. Long brown hair covered part of her mother's face and tickled Maya's nose, making her giggle and wrinkle her nose._

 _"Mom?" she asked, feeling tears well up in her eyes._

 _"I'm here" her mother comforted her._

 _Maya's heart fluttered with happiness and she swung her arms to embrace her mother tightly._

 _"Don't cry darling, it will be over soon" she comforted her, stroking her head and hair reassuringly._

 _"It hurts" Maya sobbed into her shoulder._

 _"I know, not long now" she replied and hugged her tightly._

 _"Hey kid!" came a familiar man's voice._

 _"Dad?!" Maya looked around shocked, "How are you here?" she asked as he knelt next to them and kissed Maya on the head. They both looked the same as the last day she saw them._

 _"We're always here" he replied smiling, "You're our amazing kid, we would never leave your side"._

 _Maya felt hot tears stream down her face and her face flush with happiness as she looked at them in disbelief._

 _"Hey, no tears" her mom reached out and wiped them away, "you're our brave girl"._

 _Maya nodded, "I'm not crying" she laughed, "I'm just so happy to see you both again". She took a moment to study their faces. She saw traits in their appearances that she saw in herself when she looked in the mirror; she had dad's blue eyes and mom's brown hair. Her father was a couple of inches taller than her mother, but he had jet black hair and a broad smile, something she remembered her mom complementing him about, while her mom had ash brown hair and grey eyes._

 _"We're always with you. Remember that" her mom said, looking at her lovingly._

 _"You've got a lot of work left to do," her dad said, smiling. "Your friends are worried. You should probably wake up now"_

 _But Maya looked at him confused. "I don't want to leave you" she said, sadness gripping her at the thought of waking up without them there._

 _"Maya, wake up" he repeated, this time an urgency in his voice._

 _'No…' Maya thought, 'it hurts too much…'_

 _Her father's expression turned fearful, as if reading her thoughts. "MAYA, WAKE UP!" he yelled._

* * *

"She's not breathing!" Boone yelled.

"Maya, come on, wake up" pleaded McNamara. Ibsen and Ramos were standing behind him in shock of how quickly the situation turned for the worse.

"Wha-what do we do?!" Ramos asked desperately.

 _'Stimpak!'_ thought Boone as he jumped off the bed, ran to his duffle bag and got his last stimpak out. He got back to Maya, but just as he was about to inject her, she gasped for air.

"Oh my God…" Ramos exclaimed, "thank you".

Maya opened her eyes and her surroundings started to come into focus slowly. She saw her group crowded around her, looking worried but also relieved.

"We thought we lost you there for a second" McNamara sighed in relief.

Maya managed to reassure them with a weak smile, "I'm still here".

They all laughed and nodded, except for Boone who was kneeling on the floor next to Maya opposite the others, holding her hand tightly with his other hand covering up his face.

"Hey" Maya said weakly, shaking his hand, "what's wrong?"

Boone sniffed and dug his index finger and thumb into his eyes, pushing tears away and turning his face away so she couldn't see. "Nothing…." He sighed, "…just got scared for a second"

Maya smiled broadly at him, "Well, you're still a bad ass in my eyes" she said, referring to the conversation they had the night before they reached Hidden Valley.

Boone laughed with relief, "That so?" he asked looking at her, the whites of his eyes red.

"Mhmm" she murmured groggily.

McNamara busied himself with stitching Maya's cuts up and asked her to move her hand and fingers for him, which she did without issue.

"Good, looks like I didn't nick any nerves while I was digging in your shoulder" he sighed in relief and put the medical tools in the pan on the end table. "You'll need all the rest you can get now. That means no cracking jokes until late at night Ramos" he pointed at him jokingly.

Ramos put his hands up as if in surrender. "No jokes" he replied.

McNamara stood back up, straightening his tight back and making the vertebrae click. He was feeling extremely relieved, but also overwhelmed. He collapsed in the couch and exhaled loudly. Exhaustion, relief, grief, and frustration had found him again, but he was too tired to think about the bunker now. Right now, all McNamara wanted to do was sleep.

"Who's hungry?" asked Ramos, dipping into their supplies bag and rummaging out some Blamco Mac n' Cheese, Salisbury Steak, potato chips, and Fancy Lads Snack Cakes. He tossed the cakes to Boone, who caught it in one hand. "I know how much you two lovebirds like these" he winked, making Maya laugh, and went over to the cooking station to warm up the meals. Ibsen sat down with McNamara and shared the box of potato chips with him.

"Alright, what do we have here?" said Boone, opening the box of cakes, allowing a mild orange scent to come out.

Maya perked up quickly, peeking into the box. Boone picked two out and placed them in her lap, just as she did for him once. She smiled, picked one up and took a bite out of it.

 _'Chocolate orange'_ she thought happily, her favourite flavour combination. It reminded her of Jaffa Cakes she used to eat with her parents, but with these cakes the sponge was orange flavour and had a creamy chocolate ganache in the centre. She hadn't had a Jaffa Cake since her dad…

Boone was watching her facial expressions go from happiness, to delight, and then melancholy. He cocked his head, confused.

"Is something wrong?" he asked concerned.

She shook her head, "No… nothing's wrong. I just had a strange dream, when I passed out…"

"Hmm?"

Maya took a moment before proceeding with her thought, "Have you ever had one of those dreams where….it feels so real? Where… people that you love, who're not here with you anymore, come and talk to you? And it feels completely…" she trailed off, gazing into his eyes, unable to find a sufficiently appropriate word to describe the feeling. But it looked like Boone understood.

He nodded, "Yes. I have." He told Maya about the dream he had about Carla at Cottonwood Cove, just before he was woken up by their Vertibird flying overhead.

"Wow…" Maya commented, "some dreams…"

Boone nodded, but deep down he had a feeling they were more than just dreams. And he could see that Maya had a similar experience.

"What was your dream?" he asked curiously.

"I uh… I was with my parents again. They comforted me, told me that you were all worried, and that I needed to wake up" she said, keeping it brief. She felt that if she revealed the dream in full detail that she would break down into tears.

Boone nodded, "Well, they were right. We _were_ worried" he smiled widely.

Maya studied Boone's expression. It was the first time she saw him smile properly; it made his face light up. She couldn't help but smile with him.

"Okay, who's up for some grub?" Ramos asked, carrying a couple of pots of Mac n' Cheese and Salisbury Steak when they heard a heavy-handed knock on the door.

McNamara shot up out of the couch and pulled out his pistol while Boone drew his combat knife. McNamara pressed his index finger to his lips to the group as he inched closer to the door.

"Hello?!" came a woman's voice, "I know you're in here!" she called.

 _'Why does that voice sound familiar?'_ thought McNamara.

"McNamara! Let me in!" she demanded and started banging on the door.

McNamara opened the door and there in front of him stood a wide eyed Veronica Santangelo.


	13. Chapter 14: Those We Left Behind

McNamara grabbed Veronica by the scruff and pulled her in, quickly shutting the door behind them.

"What the hell Veronica?" he said annoyed, "someone could have followed you"

"No one followed me" she shrugged as she looked around inside, "so this is your secret hide-out. Not much to look at" she commented. Then her eyes caught Maya lying on the bed, eyes wide with surprise.

"Oh, hello" she said, surprised to see Maya and Boone. She walked over to them, picking up two tins of food on the way much to Ramos' consternation. She handed one to Maya and pulled up a chair next to her. However, after looking her up and down and noticing her hair that was still streaked with dried blood, surgical instruments on the end table next to her, and her shoulder bandaged up, Veronica's demeanour shifted. "Oh my god… what happened?"

Silence drowned the room. Veronica looked at each of them, searching for an answer, until McNamara decided to be the one to provide it. He rested his back on the cold concrete wall behind him and heaved a long, drawn out sigh; as though he were carrying the grief of every member of his group… including the ones who weren't present.

"We lost Watkins…" he stated, watching Veronica's face turn grey.

Veronica squirmed in her chair. She was fond of Watkins, even though they butted heads at times when she was there, but she was only a kid then. This wasn't going to be an easy update for anyone. "…How?" she managed to ask, holding back a sob. McNamara explained the entire chain of events that took place, from the moment they landed at the site of the University, finding Maya, the interrogation, Old Mormon Fort, and Watkins' death. If the incredible story shocked Veronica, she hid it very well.

After a long moment of gloomy silence, Veronica decided to ask the question that was burning on everyone's lips. "So what's the plan?" she looked at McNamara, "I assume you have one. You always do".

McNamara sighed and rubbed his tired eyes, "We have a general plan, but… it's going to be a helluva lot more complicated to do now. So, I guess you could say we _had_ a plan. Not so sure now…" he lowered himself back down on the couch, his muscles tight and his body aching all over.

 _'The great McNamara without a plan? That's a first'_ thought Veronica.

"I'll uh…we'll figure something out in the morning" McNamara continued, "but Maya needs some time to heal first, she's been shot. We had just removed the bullet and bandaged her up before you came knocking". He looked up at Veronica, gripped by apprehension.

"Veronica… are you certain you weren't followed?"

"Give it a rest, of course I'm sure!" she sounded annoyed, picking up the tin of food and motioning to Ramos to take it back, "I lost my appetite…"

"How did you know where to find us?" Ramos asked as he walked over to her and took the tin back.

"Well the big earth shaking explosion wasn't hard to miss… And… I've kinda been tracking you since the Old Mormon Fort." She murmured, bringing up one knee to her chest to rest her chin on it, staring at the floor.

Maya had no idea that they were being followed, and it appeared that Boone didn't either as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair upon hearing this. "I didn't spot you" he sounded almost annoyed at himself.

"Well of course you didn't, I made sure of that" Veronica added, "The courier told me all about you and your spotting abilities".

"You… met the courier?" Boone asked, sitting up straight. She had gained his interest.

"Who is the courier?" Maya asked groggily.

"She basically saved the Brotherhood, the NCR, the Khans… hell… she fought at Hoover Dam and helped defeat Caesar's legion" Veronica answered.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Boone followed up, but Veronica shook her head.

"Don't know to be honest, she probably high tailed it out of the Mojave…. Can't say I blame her, the way things are going in this hell hole, she had the right idea. We all should have left." She said, looking up at McNamara.

"Not this again" he sighed, running his hand through his dusty white hair, "we were given the Mojave to watch over before I was even conceived. You don't get to overturn that kind of decision so lightly without repercussions".

"And look what happened now. Look at the shit storm we must deal with" anger was building in Veronica's voice, "we could have left all this crap behind if we just departed for the Capitol".

McNamara grunted in frustration, "Urngh! Veronica! We've been THROUGH this! Must we repeat the same argument again?"

"Well you clearly didn't listen to me the first time; consider this the 'I told you so' argument" she replied sarcastically. This infuriated McNamara; his face turned red and he dug his fingers into his scalp. Maya could see his knuckles turning white…

"Leaving the Mojave would have meant disobeying the command of the Brotherhood council. Do you know what that means Veronica?" the vein in his temple bulged as his eyes turned on her, "exile. Immediate, indisputable exile. Would you have doomed your brothers and sisters to traverse the Mojave wastes, stripped of everything they know, all the weapons, food, and shelter taken away like that?" he snapped his fingers.

"At least they would have been alive…" she replied, her eyes welling up.

"They are alive, we're going to make a plan, find out where White has taken them, and go rescue them" McNamara stated with more confidence than he truly felt. But Veronica just shook her head.

"They're dead, Nolan… there's no one left to save" she whispered.

It was as if she had knocked the wind out of him. McNamara was dumbfounded, staring at Veronica wide eyed. "What are you saying? You can't know that, why would you say such a thing?!"

"I know, alright…" her voice muffled slightly by her sleeve as she wiped tears off her cheeks.

McNamara shook his head in defiance, "No, no you're lying"

"See for yourself", she tossed a pouch at him with what sounded like metal jangling in them. McNamara hurriedly opened it, thinking this must be some sort elaborate prank. What he saw inside turned his blood cold. Half a dozen tags… Brotherhood tags… from _his_ group.

"And those were just the ones I was able to find" Veronica added.

 _'Wells, Ortega, Curtis, Garcia, Carrington, Williams…'_ he read the names on the tags in his mind, clutching them in shaking hands. _'No… you can't be gone'_.

"How did you get this?" he whispered, his voice straining from the grief that was taking hold of him and causing his eyes to well up with tears.

"It doesn't matter how I got them, what matters is what we do now!" she replied, "So… I'll ask you again, Elder… do you have a plan?" Veronica asked, her voice steady and a dogged determination for vengeance in her eyes.

McNamara squeezed the dog tags in his hand, a poisonous rage coursing through his veins. Never had he felt this way, not even with their skirmish with the NCR over Helios.

"We leave in the morning" he responded under his breath, his voice seething with anger.

* * *

The group was up before dawn packing up their things, and Maya was woken up by all the commotion. She looked around and saw that everyone was already dressed. She tried to sit up to get out of bed and start getting ready herself, but the pain in her shoulder shot through her entire body and she collapsed back down on the bed with a groan. McNamara noticed it and knelt next to her.

"How's my patient doing?" he asked worriedly, "Are you able to move?"

Maya winced and tried to sit up again, using her good arm and shoulder to prop herself up, but even that required a lot of effort. She felt like a heavy weight was sitting on her, and she was feeling cold despite the stuffy warmth in the safehouse. McNamara put his arm around her waist and tried to sit her up, but Maya let out of yelp of pain.

"Okay, okay we're going back down" he said as he lowered her on her back.

"Aaah! Damn it" she cried out.

"Let's take a look at your shoulder" he said and gently helped her lie on her good side. Peeling back the bandages, he saw the stitches crusted in dark crimson scabs. The area around however was still inflamed and hot to the touch. This was not good news…

"It looks like there's a minor infection" he said, trying to hide the anxiety in his tone.

Maya laughed weakly, "It feels like my nerves are on fire".

 _'Shit… We can't afford this'_ he thought.

Boone opened the door and walked back inside the shelter. "The area is clear, no one is within a mile of our position. If we're going to leave, we do it now" he advised. He saw McNamara kneeling next to Maya, who was still in bed and looked to be in pain. "What's up?" he asked as he walked up to them and knelt opposite McNamara.

"She's developed an infection" McNamara replied, grabbing a sterile medical cloth from a first aid box he left next to the bed, doused it in alcohol, and began cleaning the affected area. Maya shuddered at first from the sting, but soon relaxed and gave in to the cooling sensation as the alcohol evaporated off her skin.

"Can you get up?" asked Boone, growing concerned. Maya shook her head.

"I tried… Too painful" she whispered lethargically.

McNamara turned to Boone, "We're going to have to carry her".

"Are you mad?! She's not well, moving her will only exacerbate her condition" he stated, "She needs rest! We can move out when her infection clears".

Shaking his head, McNamara was adamant about their departure. "We leave today" he said.

Boone stared at him in disbelief, knowing that this meant a high probability that Maya would not make the trip. He saw too many soldiers die this way. There was only one other option…

"No, _you're_ leaving today. Maya and I will stay here and wait for your return, or at the very least until you give us an update on your progress".

"I am _not_ leaving you both here alone" McNamara shot him a look of warning, "we are _all_ going to go, _together_ , to find the rest of the Brotherhood and to kill the son of a bitch who nuked my home!"

He wasn't thinking straight, that much was clear. It reminded Boone of the rage and need for vengeance he had the night he found out Carla was kidnapped. He recognised it as surely as he would recognise an old friend.

"McNamara…" Boone began cautiously, "If you take Maya on this mission, she won't survive. And… I know you don't want that for her". Boone didn't believe the last thing he said wholeheartedly as this was the second time he was willing to risk her safety and her life for his mission; but Boone was trying to appeal to his human side, not the Brotherhood one. It looked like it worked…

"I will stay with Maya and help her recover. Going on this mission we would only slow your progress and jeopardise Maya's well being", Boone argued.

 _'He's right…'_ thought McNamara, feeling ashamed that he was willing to put an innocent woman's life in danger for his own personal vendetta. He heaved a long sigh and relented.

"Alright… I will keep you updated daily" he said, "There's a communication radio in the cabinet in the corner. Do not change the frequency. I will radio you in the evening".

Boone nodded and thanked him.

McNamara leaned in and gave Maya a hug. She wrapped her good arm around his neck, "Good luck, and get back soon" she said.

"I will. You focus on getting better, because when we're done we are going to have to make a plan to get you back home" he smiled. He didn't realise just how much he cared for her until that moment when she hugged him back.

He stood up and collected his things, leaving about two days' worth of food for them.

"You two behave yourselves, and no late night reading of Grognak you hear?" Ramos joked, giving Maya a hug as she laughed. Ibsen gave her two interesting books to read, one on the history of the Brotherhood of Steel and a novel to keep her from feeling bored. Maya thanked him and wished them luck on their mission. Truth be told, she felt like she was letting them down. She wanted to get up and go with them, help them get the answers and justice they needed. But her body wouldn't let her. She watched them leave the safehouse, one by one, and wondered when she would see them next.


	14. Chapter 15: Fever

A couple of hours passed after McNamara and his team departed, and Maya had taken a turn for the worse. Boone was already worried about Maya after McNamara informed him that she had developed an infection; now, he was desperate. He covered her with his blanket because as she said she was feeling cold, even though it was a balmy 77 degrees in the safehouse. Sitting down next to her on the bed, he held her hand until she fell asleep. Sweat from her fever was beginning to trickle down her forehead.

 _'I have to do something'_ he thought. Instinctively he considered about giving her a stimpak, but that was only good for helping to heal injuries faster, such as a broken bone, stab or gunshot wound. If there was an underlying problem such as poison or infection, a stimpak wouldn't be sufficient. And he only had one left with him. Then the idea hit him. He gently got off the bed so as not to wake Maya, picked up his rifle and combat knife and exited the safehouse.

Snaking his way past some geckos, Boone got to a clearing and analysed his surroundings. The area seemed to be clear, but he checked with his binoculars just in case.

 _'Good, no one around'_ he thought, satisfied. Wandering around about a kilometre away from McNamara's safehouse, he found some broc flower and xander root and put them in his pocket. He was going to use it to make healing powder, but he picked a couple extra to make a poultice and place it on Maya's wound to draw out the infection, and he could add a bit of the healing powder in a drink for her to ingest and fight it on both fronts.

He stood there for a moment appreciating the sunset and the refreshing breeze. Then, something caught his attention in the distance. The dinosaur head.

'I wonder…' he thought, grabbing his binoculars again. He was searching for a barrel sticking out of the dinosaur's mouth. Nothing…

"Hmmm" he mused, trying to determine whether a trip to Novac was worth it. It would only take him five minutes to jog to there. If his room wasn't picked clean, there were a couple of things in there that could help them, as well as some much-needed medicines in the spare first aid box he hid in a secret compartment in the wardrobe. It was worth the risk. With his binoculars securely resting around his neck, and his rifle slung over his back, he began the trek up to Novac.

Boone made his way around the back of the hotel rooms at Novac, making sure he didn't make a sound and wasn't seen by anyone. It was quiet… too quiet.

 _'Where is everyone?'_ he wondered, his back pressed against the wall and trying to look into the enclosed area just outside his old room. After allowing a minute to pass by trying to listen for any voices or sounds of footsteps, he climbed over the fence as quietly as he could, and made his way to the front door. Luckily darkness was fast approaching, giving him an added stealth advantage. He reached his right hand out to grasp the door handle and noticed his hand was shaking. He hadn't been here since the courier found him and they took care of Jeannie May.

 _'Come on, get a grip Craig'_ he thought, annoyed at himself. He tried to turn the handle but the door was locked. Boone swore under his breath; he would have to pick the lock. Taking out a bobby pin, he tried to remember the instructions the courier gave him. It's been many years since Boone had to do this sort of thing, but he picked it back up without issue. Picking the lock on a safe on the other hand would be impossible for him. The locking mechanism clicked and the door swung open…

He could almost hear the radio playing in the background and Carla fussing over something. Shaking his head to get the ghostly sounds and images out of his head, he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Someone had been through his room; the bed was torn almost to pieces, and all drawers and cupboards were raided for supplies. One thing Boone didn't understand: why bother to lock up behind you if you've already trashed the room? Unless… your intent was to come back. Boone hastened his efforts, not wanting to find out whether his theory was true. He got to the wardrobe and sure enough the meds were still there in the hidden compartment, much to his relief. Grabbing the entire first aid box, he made a run back the way he came, and up and over the fence, before breaking into a run in the direction of the safehouse.

* * *

About half an hour had passed after Boone had left the before Maya woke up, her eyes slightly crusted from dried tears and dust. She reached up and rubbed them, feeling the ache in her eye sockets from her exhaustion. Even though every muscle and bone in her body was in searing pain, Maya had to get up. Grunting in discomfort, she pushed herself up with her good arm in a seated position with her legs hanging off the edge of the bed. She took a few breaths before putting her weight on her feet, looking around to see where Boone was.

"Craig?" she called out weakly. No answer…

 _'Where is he?'_ she worried as her eyes scanned the room. _'Maybe he went out to get take away food. I could totally go for some Chinese food'_. The last thought made her chuckle as a fond memory of hanging out with Danny, eating Chinese food, and watching 80s and 90s TV sitcoms popped into her mind.

With Boone's blanked wrapped around her and trailing slightly on the floor, she walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. She downed almost an entire bottle in five gulps, the water soothing and refreshing her. Taking back the water bottle with her, she shuffled over to the bathroom to wash her face. The fluorescent light flickered and hummed to life, revealing a frightening sight staring back at her in the mirror and making her jump.

'Oh my god… I look awful' she thought as she studied her reflection in the mirror. Dark circles were prominent under her eyes, her face was dirty and had smudged black dirt and soot in patches on her cheeks, and her hair was still caked in crusted blood. Maya bit back a cry as she pulled her hair forward and watched the coagulated blood crack and fall off in bits to the floor; the events leading to Watkins' death replaying in her mind again. She turned on the faucet, gave her face a good scrub and then dunked her head in the clean sink, watching as the dark brown and crimson residue was washed down the drain. Once cleaned, she shuffled back to the bed. There was no towel so she had to make do with damp hair, but at least she was cleaner. Scuffling out of the bathroom, she went but to her bunk, curling up with Boone's blanket wrapped around her. Once again the feverish shivers found her and she pulled the blanket tighter around herself.

 _'Where are you Craig?'_ she worried, her eyelids growing heavy. She drifted off to sleep again as another wave of fever washed over her, and dreamt of being trapped in a horrifying wasteland alone…

* * *

Boone was almost sprinting up the hill, still about a mile away from the safehouse, when he caught movement in the corner of his eye. Built in reflexes from his training in the NCR took over, and he quickly ducked behind a man-sized rock covered in some long dead overgrowth.

 _'Shit'_ he thought to himself as he calmed his breathing. A hooded figure was making his way down the road towards Novac. Good thing Boone decided to avoid travelling on the road back, otherwise he would have been spotted. It didn't appear that the stranger had seen him, but Boone hunched down to the ground just in case. He put his right hand on his holstered 10mm…just in case. But the figure kept walking, unaware of his existence. He peeked around the corner to get a better look, and sure enough the stranger was making his way to one of the houses in Novac. The McBride house…

"Hmmm" Boone wondered, as he took out his binoculars and peered through the lenses. "The McBride house" he whispered under his breath as he saw Dusty McBride peer through the curtains of his window, notice the stranger, and come out of the front of his house with a shotgun in hand. Boone quickly got his own rifle out and peered down the scope, his crosshairs focused on the back of the stranger's head, trigger finger itching…

But the stranger came to a stop slowly just ten paces from McBride with his hands in the air and appeared to show him something that was in the palm of his hand. Boone didn't manage to get a glimpse of it however as it was obscured by the back of the stranger's palm. Whatever it was, McBride lowered his gun and Boone noticed a look of relief on his face. After a minute or so, Dusty went back in his house, followed by the stranger. Whatever this was, Dusty could take care of himself. It was apparent that he knew this individual, otherwise he would not have allowed him into his house.

"Huh… So, it's not abandoned after all" Boone whispered. Now that there was no one else around and the stranger was out of eyesight and earshot, Boone made his way back more carefully. It took him longer to weave through the rocks and shrubs, but it was more unlikely that he would get spotted by anyone this way.

* * *

It was going to be a cold night; Boone could feel a bitterness in the breeze. He was drenched in sweat as he hurriedly approached the entrance to the safehouse. Unlocking the door with the spare key McNamara left him, he dropped his loot on the couch and walked over to Maya. He sat down on the chair next to her bed and cocked his head in confusion. Her hair was wet…

 _'She must have woken up and done it herself'_ he thought. A couple of strands of hair were covering her face. He gently ran his fingers over her hair to pull them away, but as his fingers grazed her forehead, he felt the intense heat of her fever.

"Maya, you're burning up!" he exclaimed as he placed his palm flat on her forehead. It was covered in sweat and she was hot to the touch. But what worried him most of all was that she didn't wake up when he tried to wake her, not even a grunt of disapproval. Boone quickly checked her pulse and put his head on her chest. She was breathing and her heart was beating, slowly but steady. However, he needed to bring down her fever, fast! He was gone for almost two hours, and she was feverish before he left. Boone leapt to the couch where he dropped off his things, rummaged through his sack of loot and took out the first aid box he recovered from his room in Novac. Inside was a small pouch filled with the healing powder Maya sorely needed.

Going over to the cooking station, he warmed up some purified water and mixed in some healing powder. Sitting back down next to Maya, he tried to wake her up again, to no avail.

"Come on Maya, you need to drink this" he pleaded, "Wake up. Please". There was no way he could make her drink this while she was asleep without risking the liquid going into her lungs. He didn't have a surgical hose or funnel either to force feed her the medicine.

A horrible thought invaded his mind…. What if she was beyond saving, what if the infection had spread too far. He shook his head, pressing his face into his palms.

"No… This fever won't win" he whispered determinedly, getting up from the chair again and going into the bathroom, turning on the tap in the tub to run Maya a lukewarm bath so he could bring the fever down. He found a clean cloth in one of the cabinets, soaked it in cold water and placed it on Maya's forehead, hoping that would help wake her up a bit before he put her in the tub. He sat there for a couple of minutes watching her and hoping she would wake up. Nothing…

By this point the tub had filled about a quarter of the way, enough for what was needed. But first, he needed to take off some layers of her clothing… It didn't make him feel comfortable doing this without her permission.

"Alright… Maya… I'm going to have to put you in the tub…" he heaved a sigh, feeling rather awkward.

 _'Get a hold of yourself'_ he thought, _'Maya is very sick and you need to bring her fever down, and all you're doing is wasting time'._

Taking her socks, jeans, and sweater off, leaving her shirt and underwear on, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the tub. Setting her down on the edge, he let her feet soak in the water first.

"Mmphff" came a groan from Maya. She was finally coming to.

"Maya?" Boone said, moving the already warm cloth on her forehead away. "Hey, Maya, wake up". He watched her temple wrinkle slightly at the effort of trying to open her eyes.

"Where…what are you doing?" she asked weakly, her head resting on his shoulder.

"You have a high fever Maya, I'm going to have to bring it down" Boone tried to explain, but it was no use. Her head lolled back and she was out again.

 _'Dammit'_ he cursed, hoping that he didn't have to completely dunk her, _'No choice now'_.

Slowly and steadily he lowered Maya into the tub, letting her legs soak first as he didn't want to shock her system. When she was submerged to just above her waist, he turned off the tap and sat down on the floor next to her, checking her fever with his palm on her forehead. After about ten minutes she was feeling a lot cooler and Boone breathed a sigh of relief. Looking down at the floor, he caught a glimpse of the cut on his arm that he sustained during the fight with the sniper. The blood had coagulated and formed a thick crust over the cut; it didn't look deep but due to his exhaustion he was rudely reminded of the pain. He pushed himself off the floor and stood up, taking a few steps towards the mirror to check the cut on his face.

 _'Hmmm… looks like it's healing alright'_ he thought as he poked and prodded the cut. It would leave a scar though, as would the cut that ran down his left eyebrow and cheek. In the mirror's reflection, he caught Maya stirring.

Groggily, Maya opened her eyes, squinting from the bright flickering fluorescent light in the bathroom. She had no idea how she ended up in the bath tub.

"Boone?" she asked weakly.

"Here" he crouched down next to her, feeling her temple with his palm. Her fever was going down steadily.

"Why am I in the tub?" she asked confused.

Boone sighed and rested his chin on his folded arms over the edge of the tub. This was a good sign; she was going to be okay.

"You were burning up, I had to try to cool you down".

Maya nodded, then noticed that half her clothes were missing and started to blush.

Boone noticed her face redden and a concerned look crossed his eyes. He immediately reached for her temple to check her fever again. "I think your fever is getting worse!" he said.

Maya pushed his arm away gently, shook her head and explained she was feeling embarrassed as she crossed her arms in front of her. Boone tilted his head, puzzled.

"I'm half naked, in a drenched white t-shirt, and you are hovering near my chest" she said and caught Boone's gaze shift below her neckline.

"Oh…!" his ears turned red as the realisation hit him, and quickly shifted his gaze away.

Maya laughed weakly as an embarrassed Boone helped her up and out of the tub. She was starting to feel a bit better. And hungry…

"I'm starving" she commented as Boone gave her a towel to dry herself off and one of his cleaner t-shirts and trousers to wear, until they found her some new apparel.

"I'm not surprised, considering you haven't eaten since yesterday" he replied, "I'll prepare something for us. But before we eat anything, you must drink this" he procured the glass of water with the healing powder mixed in it and explained its contents and its effects to her. It had a very herbal smell to it, and the taste and powdery texture wasn't too unbearable. She downed the drink in a couple of gulps, then proceeded to change into the new clothes. Maya could feel the effects of the healing powder drink taking effect, calming her fever down and reducing the pain in her shoulder to tolerable levels. She still wanted to take it slow and not overexert herself.

Once Maya was changed into the ridiculously oversized clothing, Boone brought over some food for them.

"What's on the menu tonight?" she asked, trying to stifle the growling coming from her stomach as Boone handed her a small plate of what looked like eggs and beans with chunks in it.

"Yum Yum Deviled Eggs and Pork n' Beans" he stated as he sat down on the bed next to Maya. They were both so hungry and exhausted that they ate in silence, all their focus on replenishing the calories they lost. Boone was the first to finish, practically wolfing down his entire plate. Once done, he proceeded to change Maya's bandages and added some healing powder onto the wound itself. It was already beginning to look better; the redness and swelling was dying down.

"Alright, you're all patched up" he said.

Maya thanked him and gently reclined onto the bed, getting into a comfortable position, pulling the blanket over her. Although her fever was passing, she was still shivering slightly. Boone pulled the blanket up over her shoulders before he collapsed on the bunk bet next to hers. He was feeling a bit uncomfortable from not having cleaned himself in a couple of days, especially after breaking a sweat on his run back to the safehouse; but he was too fatigued to do anything about it. It would have to wait until the morning.

"Hey, Craig" he heard Maya call sleepily.

"Hmm?"

"We haven't heard from McNamara" she said, too tired to open her eyes.

"No… we didn't" mused Boone. With everything that was going on, it had completely slipped his mind that McNamara was going to call in.

"Do you think they're okay? Should we contact them?"

He thought for a moment, pondering the best way to reply. If McNamara had anything to report, he would have done so by now. There was the added matter that they were trying to find White to get some answers about the bunker's destruction. They could be maintaining radio silence…

"Yeah… He's a good leader, he's gotten his group out of tougher situations before", he turned to look at Maya, who was semi-conscious, struggling to stay awake. "Get some sleep. I will stay awake a while longer, in case he calls in". She nodded and sighed loudly as she pulled the blanket closer to her, almost burying her face in it. It made him smile.

* * *

He lay there for about an hour, trying to stay awake to listen for anything on the communication radio; but nothing came through that night. His mind was racing about the events that had transpired that day. He had too many close calls with Maya and he was still worried if she would heal properly. He turned to look at her, wondering if she was still struggling to sleep. But even in the dim light he could see she was fast sleep, her breathing steady and not a drop of feverish sweat on her forehead. _'Good'_ he thought happily. He watched her body rise and fall as she slept, wondering what she was dreaming about as he saw her hands and legs twitch slightly every couple of minutes; until his eyes became heavy and he reluctantly gave in to sleep.


	15. Chapter 16: Into The Lion's Den

**_2 days later:_**

"FUCK!" yelled McNamara, kicking a chair and sending it skidding across the room, hitting the wall with a thud. He was back at the bunker where White held him and the other prisoner. But there was no sign of him… of anyone for that matter. It was abandoned. They were currently in White's main office, where everything was stripped bare, except for a working computer terminal in the middle of the room with a letter written to them… from White.

"Elder, please" begged Ibsen, "calm down, we'll find them".

McNamara was pacing slowly up and down the room, his face contorted and red with rage, a vein pulsing threateningly on his neck and forehead.

"Where do we even begin to look? Look at this place, it's stripped to the bulkheads!" his voice seething with frustration. His chest felt tight…

"And that letter… he was _mocking_ us!" he yelled, pointing to the flickering screen of the computer, "That piece of shit, that killed so many of our Brothers and Sisters… I'm going to rip his heart out of his chest and feed it to him".

Veronica exhaled and rested her back against a wall, allowing herself to slide down to the ground slowly, defeated by their current situation. This was her one chance to find out who did this and why, and the bastards got away… the bastards that killed so many of her friends. She sat there for a few minutes feeling like giving up, oblivious to the world around her until Ramos noticed she wasn't moving. Worriedly, he tilted his head to catch her eye but she buried her face in her hands. He walked over to her and reached out a hand to help her up, but she pushed it aside.

"Hey! We don't quit" he said sternly, reaching out again.

"It's no use… we'll never find them now" she replied defeatedly.

Ramos sighed, frustrated, "Fine, if you want to sit here and brood that's your call. We're going to regroup and try again. You're welcome to join whenever you stop feeling sorry for yourself".

Veronica shot him a look of warning, pushed herself off the wall and stood back up again before going over to the computer terminal, ripping the power plug out much to everyone's astonishment.

"We're wasting time, let's go" she said and stormed out of the room, making her way to the exit as the others followed suit.

"Where are you going?" Ramos asked behind her, trying to keep up.

"Every second we spend here we're wasting time. There's nothing left here, we need to re-group" she panted as she almost broke into a jog down a corridor.

"There might be some information, some clue that we may have missed" McNamara added, but Veronica just shook her head. She was feeling frustrated and this place didn't have the answers they needed.

"Veronica, stop!" Ramos insisted.

Veronica stopped abruptly and turned on her heels to face them, "No!... There's _nothing_ left here. We're _wasting time_! And I… I can't be in here… in this monster's bunker" she almost spat the words out, her body shaking with rage.

"Alright" McNamara relented, seeing she was in great distress, "okay, you go up with Ramos and radio in our update to Boone and Maya. I'll make another round with Ibsen to check for anything we might have missed. We'll meet you up there in a few".

Veronica nodded, unwilling to look McNamara in the eye so he wouldn't see the tears that were threatening to make a re-appearance. McNamara watched as Ramos escorted Veronica away, the tightness in his chest increasing slightly. He put a hand on his sternum and tried to alleviate the tightness by rubbing the area.

Ibsen noticed that McNamara wasn't his usual self, "Elder, are you in pain?"

McNamara was taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. He felt his heart race, he was breaking out in a cold sweat, and the room felt like it was spinning. He needed to sit down. Slowly he lowered himself to the ground and rested his back to the wall, still clutching his chest. Ibsen rushed to him and helped keep him upright.

"Elder! What's wrong?"

"Chest… can't…. breathe" McNamara wheezed.

Immediately Ibsen thought that McNamara was having a heart attack.

"Are you feeling any pain in your left arm? Neck? Jaw?" he asked. McNamara shook his head to all three questions. Ibsen placed two fingers on his neck and felt for a heartbeat. It was racing at over 160 a minute. Ibsen realized that although his current condition looked serious, McNamara was just experiencing a panic attack. And no wonder with everything that they have been through and he was certain that McNamara had no sleep for the past three days. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's a panic attack, nothing serious, it'll pass" he tried to comfort him, but McNamara laughed nervously.

"Doesn't feel like that from my end".

"It will pass. I'm not a doctor by profession, but if I was I would prescribe lots of rest when we get back to the safehouse" he joked.

McNamara laughed and nodded. He was not going to disagree with his friend, the past couple of days were trying and he was feeling more drained than usual. What he wouldn't give to be a young man again…

After about ten minutes, McNamara was beginning to feel better. His heart rate had returned to normal and he was up on his feet again, drenched in sweat. He decided that he would skip the second inspection round and to meet Ramos and Veronica up top. _'Maybe radio Irvine in, get a lift all the way back'_ he thought to himself, not wanting to walk the 1.5 miles back to the drop off point.

They made their way up and out of the bunker together. Ramos and Veronica were a couple hundred feet away from the entrance. He could hear Ramos talking on the radio, trying to get a hold of Boone or Maya on the other line.

"How's it going? I thought we might radio Irvine so he could pick us up from here instead of the drop off point seeing as the place is abandoned"

Ramos looked a bit concerned, "We've been trying to contact the safehouse since we got out. No response".

"Well… maybe they've gone to get more supplies" McNamara replied, trying to push his concern to one side.

"Maybe…" Ramos was pensive. Whatever the reason might be, he had a gut feeling that they should get back as quickly as possible. He changed the frequency on their radio and called Irvine in for pickup. In less than a quarter of an hour, they were flying back to McNamara's safehouse, empty handed and with no good news. At least, this time, no one got hurt…

* * *

Maya was organising and checking her supply backpack, just in case they needed to leave in a hurry or if McNamara was on his way back. They finally received word in the early morning that day that McNamara and his group had reached White's bunker. _'Hopefully they found some answers by now and rescued any survivors'_ Maya thought optimistically. She was feeling much better and her fever had completely cleared. She would however have seven scars on her right shoulder for the rest of her life, but she was okay with that. If it hadn't been for McNamara and Boone, she would not have survived in this hellish timeline.

They were running low on food and were down to their last tin of Pork n' Beans and Blamco Mac and Cheese. She always thought that the names of the foods were odd. For example: Nuka Cola. What was up with that? When did they change the name from Coca Cola to Nuka Cola? And Blamco Mac and Cheese, that was a completely unrecognisable brand to her. This was also the first time she was not in an emergency situation, running away from or fighting an enemy that was chasing them, where she could stop and analyse the world around her a little bit.

"Craig, we should probably consider going on a supply run" she turned to Boone, showing him the remaining contents in her supply bag. Boone furrowed his brow and knelt next to her to have a look at what was left.

"Hmm… yeah" he commented as he checked his own supply bag and found only one pot of potato chips. That wasn't going to last them long. He would have to go hunting as there were no places to raid for food nearby. Or the other alternative was to go to Novac and hope to come across a caravan trader, but that would be too risky and somebody could be watching the roads…

With a groan, Boone stood up and picked up his rifle, combat knife and supply bag.

"Where are you going?" Maya asked, watching him lace up his military boots.

"Hunting."

Maya thought for a second and realised that she had been stuck in this room for two days now. She wanted to go out and explore with him, even if it was a wasteland. She made up her mind, she was going to go with Boone.

"I'm coming with you" she said as she started putting on her shoes and grabbing her supply bag.

Boone shook his head adamantly, "No, you're still not healed".

Maya crossed her arms in front of her chest, determined to get out of this concrete and metal box. "Craig, please, I've been stuck in here for two days now. I'm going stir-crazy".

He couldn't argue with that, but he was still concerned for her wellbeing and not wanting to expose her to unnecessary danger. Hunting in the Mojave was dangerous. Not only did you have to keep an eye out for lethal predators like the Cazadors and the Deathclaws, but you were also at risk of running into raiders, feral ghouls, and not to mention there was a Brotherhood group out there that wants them dead. He shook his head again, "No Maya, you need to stay in here. It's not safe outside and you could worsen your injury."

As he swung his rifle over his shoulder and prepared to leave, Maya remembered something the Boone had told her about the First NCR Recon sniper battalion when he was training her on the way to the Hidden Valley bunker.

"Aren't sniper's supposed to work in teams?" That did it. He froze with his hand on the door handle, a long exhale escaping him.

"Hnh. Yeah. Working on your own, you're a lot less effective. I've been there and paid for it" he said, mulling over his final response. "Fine… but this isn't going to end well" he warned as he opened up the door and stepped out.

"Don't be such a pessimist" Maya replied, following right behind him.

* * *

Their little hunting/scavenging adventure went well. They didn't encounter any more ghouls, much to Maya's relief, but they did encounter a Deathclaw family. They were far enough away that the Deathclaws couldn't see or hear them, and they were downwind so the fearsome predators couldn't detect their scent. Maya had heard Ramos and McNamara talk about Deathclaws and she wondered what they looked like. After today, she could see why they strike terror to those who are unfortunate enough to face them. Luckily they didn't have to venture too far from their safehouse before they ran into about half a dozen geckos. With one precise shot, Boone took down one of them, sending the others scurrying off away from the danger. They managed to collect most of the gecko meat and some tough hide. Boone would have to preserve it when they got back to the safehouse. They also found an abandoned makeshift shack with some buffout, psycho, and a couple of MedX syringes. Boone wasn't the kind of person to take drugs, but he collected the items just in case they encountered anything too hostile.

They were close to Old Lady Gibson's shack, and Boone wondered what had happened to her after he left Novac all those years ago. Then he remembered that Helios One was less than a half hour walk away from their present location. He turned to Maya, who was walking a few steps behind him, varmit rifle in hand and keeping an eye out for any surprises. He couldn't help but feel that she was… bored. And he couldn't blame her. She is after all an engineer, used to working in an environment where critical problem solving abilities were a necessity. Although this was an interesting distraction, he knew that this kind of activity wouldn't be interesting for her in the long run.

"You mentioned you are an engineer" he started, "There is an NCR operated solar facility nearby, if you are interested I could take you there and show you around?"

Maya looked stunned, "There's an operational solar facility… _here_?!" she asked incredulously. Boone nodded in confirmation.

"Can you do that? Give non NCR individuals a tour?" she asked sceptically.

"Well… it's not customary to do so… in fact they don't allow any civilians in there unless you are part of the Helios One team. However I have some sway with them due to the help the Courier and I provided some years ago, they won't refuse".

She was fascinated by the fact that there was a working solar facility in the middle of the wasteland and was curious to see it first hand, so she agreed and they made their way to Helios. And within twenty minutes she could see the facility in the distance. It was impressive! When Maya saw that the solar arrays were reflecting the late afternoon sunlight to a tower, it was then that she realised that those weren't solar panels, but solar reflectors. This was a concentrated solar thermal plant!

"Holy cow!" she exclaimed, "You have a solar thermal plant in this timeline too?!"

Boone turned and looked at her perplexed. "You've seen one like this in your timeline?" he asked.

Maya nodded enthusiastically, "I've seen it in pictures and on TV documentaries, but never actually went _inside_ one!"

"Is it called Helios One in your time as well?"

"No, it's called the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility" she said enthusiastically, picking up the pace and now walking ahead of Boone.

"Hold up, not so fast!" he called out, but Maya was already down the hill and making her way towards the barrier manned by several NCR officers.

"Halt! Who are you and what do you want?" came a woman's voice in what looked like a lieutenant's rank.

Maya stopped a few paces away from her with Boone huffing past her to stand between them, "It's alright, she's with me".

"And _you_ are…?" the lieutenant asked rudely, examining them both. Upon seeing his red beret and the NCR 1st Recon patch, she looked a bit embarrassed. "Oh… my apologies Sir, I didn't-"

"Don't worry about it" Boone interrupted her, his expression not betraying any emotion.

"Thank you Sir. Are you here on orders?" she inquired, looking at him then Maya quizzically.

Boone thought for a second on how to reply, "No… however my companion here is an engineer and was wondering if she could take a look inside the facility" he said watching the perturbed expression on the lieutenant's face.

"Uh… yes, of course. Although… she would have to be escorted by you or one of our guards at all times, and not left to wander alone" the soldier replied, shifting her gaze from Boone to Maya. "We've also been… having some issues with the power output lately. Maybe you… would be kind enough to have a look at that for us?"

Maya was grinning and feeling giddy with excitement, and at the mention of helping the NCR with their problem her grin widened even more making her cheeks ache. She nodded excitedly, "Of course! I would love to help in any way I can!" Finally she felt like she could be of some use and do something good.

"Great! Go right on inside. And thank you!" the soldier replied with a smile, a look of relief and gratitude on her face. The soldier ushered them in and Boone showed Maya around. They were directed to the power plant's main operation room, where an odd looking man dressed in jeans, t-shirt and a lab coat, with streaks of grey mixed with his dark blonde hair, looked like he was trying to use the control panel for the boiler system to make music.

"What the…?" Maya exclaimed, staring at him. He stopped abruptly and jerked away from the controls, with a startled and annoyed expression.

"Wha- who are you? What do you want?!" he demanded looking at one then the other. He noticed Boone standing next to Maya, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "I remember you!" he exclaimed, pointing at Boone, "You're that 1st recon guy, the one who helped us fix the plant the last time".

"What of it?" Boone asked dispassionately.

"Dude there's a big problem. Like… even a genius like myself can't find a way to fix it. This place is falling apart man!"

Maya shook her head, _'No wonder it's breaking down when a dolt is left to operate it'_ she thought.

Upon seeing their unamused expressions, the technician relented and almost got to his knees, begging for help.

"Please help me out man, this is all I got, if they find out I'm a fraud I'm a goner" he pleaded.

"Huh, I'm surprised you've lasted this long to be honest" Boone scoffed, but Maya was a bit more sympathetic.

"Okay, don't panic. Can you tell me what problems you've noticed?" Maya tried to calm him down. As pathetic as he was, she did feel a bit sorry for him.

"Man you name it! Some of these buttons and switches don't work, that computer console over there is fried, and the readings on this thing are going whacko!" he pointed frantically to a gauge reader on one of the consoles that regulates the boiler's pressure that was wavering just as frantically.

 _'Looks like I have my work cut out for me… maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew'_ Maya thought desperately as she deposited her supply bags and rifle on a sleeping cot in the corner of the room. _'Poor guy must eat, sleep, and live in here. No wonder he's a bit… off.'_

She first went over to the console with the wavering gauge and quickly established that the most likely issue was with the boiler itself because the electronics were in perfect working order, therefore there was a pressure drop in the system somewhere… possibly some pipes had rusted and needed fixing. The computer console, however, was another matter. It took Maya the better part of an hour to take it apart and look inside it. After the computer refused to turn on, there was no other alternative. And the software that was on the hard drive was "irreplaceable", according to their new friend Fantastic. _'The only thing fantastic about him is the fact that he didn't blow this place up before I got here'_ Maya thought sarcastically.

These computers were almost completely different than the ones from her time. By comparison, she was working with 50's level of technology. Another oddity with this timeline – first the foods and drinks were all made by companies she'd never heard of, now the tech. _'Whoever had the bright idea to switch out all the computers out for 50's level tech was a moron'_ she thought, annoyed at the back panel that was adamantly refusing to budge.

"Here" Boone handed her a rather large screwdriver and hammer.

"Oh… what the hell" she said after accepting the suggestion. She positioned the flat head of the screwdriver at a tight joint between the back panel and the front section. To her surprise, it came free with only one hit, landing straight in her lap. With a satisfied grin and an expression of gratitude to her assistant, who grunted in acknowledgement, she began inspecting the wiring and what looked like a processor, ram, and hard drive. But before she even tried to find the hardware problem, her fingers came across something sticky and slightly damp.

"What the… did you spill a drink on this terminal?!" Maya turned to Fantastic, shooting him a look of complete disbelief and disgust.

"I uh… may have spilled a coffee…or two" he stammered, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"TWO?!" Maya yelled.

"Okay okay four if you must know" he quickly covered his mouth, realising what he'd just said.

Maya didn't have time to give him a lecture now about handing a damned computer terminal properly. She was already fed up with him and was giving serious consideration about informing the person in charge of this facility about his scientific and technological shortcomings.

"Damn it" she muttered through lips pursed in disgust.

Boone knelt next to her, eyeing Fantastic who took a few steps away from Maya, afraid she was going to throw something at him.

With an irritated sigh, Maya began to explain the problem. "I'm going to need a replacement terminal. All the wires and the motherboard are coated in this… gunk." She showed him the motherboard, parts of which looked like they were rusted, "Who knows how long it was left like this, some of the wires are exposed too and have begun to corrode, as have some of the circuits on the motherboard. And look, there's even a hairline crack in one of the corners!" she pointed out a small jagged line no wider than a hair running along some circuits. Maya tossed the motherboard aside and ran her fingers through her hair, abruptly stopping midway after she realised her fingers are still sticky.

"Hey man be careful! We need that!" Fantastic exclaimed, looking even more alarmed.

"Oh, _now_ you care" Maya replied sardonically, "It's spent, we need another terminal". Fantastic stood there looking at them stupidly.

"Well… go get another one" Maya urged. _'Please let him be useful for something'_

"Get... another what?" he asked, screwing up his eyes as if trying to figure out English words for the first time.

"Oh, for fuck's sake" Maya jumped up and walked out of the room, down a flight of stairs and walked up to a surprised guard and requested a working uncontaminated computer terminal be brought up to them. He seemed a bit perplexed when Maya mentioned "uncontaminated", but nodded and in less than five minutes they had a functioning terminal to work with. Maya switched out the hard drives, put everything back together, and turned the machine on. It worked! She checked the software and it was all there, installing almost the second the computer was turned on.

"Yes!" Maya exclaimed triumphantly. She had serious doubts that this would work. Although this all looked and was old tech compared to what she was used to, it was all definitely built to last. She had to give the engineers credit for that. And now all that was left was to fix the pressure in the boiler.

"Right, I'm going to need someone's help for this" Maya said as she looked over at the gauge again.

"What do you need?" Boone volunteered, refusing to let Fantastic even consider the option.

"I need to go out there and examine the pipes for the boiler. Most likely I will also have to go up to the tower itself."

Boone nodded, "I'm right behind you".

With the help of one of the guards, who showed them where all the boiler pipes snaked through the facility, Maya and Boone set out to find and fix the problems. All the internal pipes seemed to be okay for the most part, some rust here and there but nothing severe. They followed the pipes outside, and immediately they noticed one of them, as wide as Boone's outstretched hand, leaking profusely.

"How did no one notice this?" Maya questioned the guard. The leak was substantial; the water was dripping down the wall of the facility. Any guard passing by, and there were plenty, would have noticed it. But their guide guard just shrugged and said no one thought anything of it.

Shaking her head in frustration, Maya knelt next to the pipe joint that connected the main water supply pipe with the one leading up to the boiler at the tower. She shut the water supply valve, stopping the leak temporarily while she tried to find the location of the crack. Unfortunately, some of the bolts in the connecting joint had failed due to wear and tear over time. They weren't easy to replace, or to put in, but after another half hour scrounging around the facility for some suitable bolts, Boone's muscle, and some PTFE spray, Maya had managed to arrest the leak. She turned the water back on and went back to the control room to check the gauge. As soon as they got back in the control room, a blur of dark blonde and grey hair greeted her with a hug that lifted her off her feet and made it hard to breathe.

"Thank you! Oh my God, I have no idea what you did but you fixed it!" Fantastic exclaimed happily.

"Hey! Put her down" Boone warned Fantastic, glaring at him until he dropped Maya back on her feet and took a few steps back.

"Sorry, I'm sorry, but come here, look!" he walked over to the control panel with the frantic gauge. It was holding steady. Maya sighed in relief, a smile creeping up on her face.

"No more coffee next to the terminals!" Maya joked, wiping her hands contaminated with sticky coffee remnants, dirt, oil, and some PTFE that Boone accidentally sprayed on her, with a towel.

"I promise" Fantastic nodded and held up his left hand. Maya laughed as Boone looked at him with complete disbelief.

The NCR soldiers were very grateful for their aid, and compensated their efforts with about 3 days' worth of food supplies and medicine in the form of stimpaks and some healing powder. Maya thanked them graciously before she and Boone collected all their belongings and made their way back to the safehouse. It was getting dark, and Boone didn't want to stay any longer than they had to. He didn't like exposing Maya to the Mojave in the dark like this, especially since they didn't have any backup and there was no full moon tonight. They had almost an hour trek back to the safehouse and he wanted to cut that time down as much as he could, so he led Maya back at a fast marching pace much to her dissatisfaction. Boone kept thinking about the hooded figure he saw at Novac and a shiver ran up his spine. He hoped that he wouldn't run into them on the way back.

Within 45 minutes they were back at the safehouse, both drenched in sweat.

"God damn… marching… no more!" Maya panted, wanting to collapse on the floor then realising that would be a bad idea in her current state of hygiene, or lack of. Her shoulder was throbbing again, making her wince.

Boone saw her pained expression, "What's up?" he moved next to her as she sat down on the arm of the couch.

"My shoulder is hurting again" Maya reached with her good arm to feel the affected area, which was feeling warm again.

"Let me have a look" Boone asked. Maya nodded and let him pull up her shirt to her shoulder on one side and peel back the gauze. Sure enough, it was looking inflamed again. No doubt the overexertion and the sweat was irritating the wound. He ran a finger lightly around the angry red patch, making sure not to touch the cuts, and noticed Maya's skin was getting goose bumps. He stopped and apologised for causing her discomfort.

"No, it didn't hurt; it felt good… soothing" she replied with relief.

Suddenly, Boone became very aware that Maya was almost topless the way her shirt was currently positioned. She wasn't wearing a bra underneath as that would irritate her injury, and he could see the underside of her right breast exposed slightly, making his heart flutter. Awkwardly and almost roughly, he straightened out her shirt. "You should go wash up, it will help" he advised, pulling her shirt down. Maya agreed and made her way to the bathroom, a bit confused by Boone's sudden peculiar behaviour and refusal to make eye contact.

* * *

She closed the door behind her, turned on the hot water and got in the shower, letting the water run off her body cleaning the sweat and dust off and the steam envelop her. As she let the water run over and down her head, she felt the remnants of Boone's caress on her shoulder, as if a phantom was gently drawing a circle around her shoulder. She wanted to feel that again. Then she felt her heart flutter and butterflies in her stomach. Her eyes darted open in surprise at the realisation of what she was considering…

She shook her head, picked up an unused bar of soap and proceeded to lather up her hair, muttering at the ridiculousness of the thoughts that came into her head.

* * *

Boone was exhausted, but his mind was racing. He wanted more than anything to be able to get to sleep tonight, but his mind kept going back to Maya and the way her skin reacted when he touched her. He wanted to make her feel like that again…

Shaking his head, he ran his fingers through his hair. It was growing like a weed and for a split second his thoughts wavered away from Maya. He inhaled deeply and held his breath for a few seconds to try to regain his composure. It worked… if only briefly.

Thankfully the communication radio cut through the silence and he heard Irvine's voice on the other end.

 _"Boone, Maya, come in"_

Almost leaping for the coms radio, Boone answered acknowledging his message.

"We have arrived at the drop off point. McNamara, Ramos, Ibsen, and Veronica will proceed in the early morning to White's bunker" Irvine informed him.

Boone was puzzled, "Why wait until morning?" he asked.

 _"Some unusually high activity has been picked up from there. They look like they are preparing for something. We have landed in a secure position about a 1.5 miles out. As soon as activity dies down a bit, they will move out. If we take action now we will most certainly be arrested"_ he explained.

Boone nodded, but the whole situation still seemed odd to him. "Copy that, I await your call tomorrow after the task is complete."

 _"Roger. We will have radio silence until then. Irvine out"_ and with the hiss of static the radio signal was cut off.

Boone heard the water in the shower stop. "Was that McNamara?" came Maya's voice from inside the bathroom. He moved closer to the door so he wouldn't have to yell, "It was the pilot, Irvine" he answered, crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning on his shoulder onto the wall adjacent to the bathroom door.

"What's going on?"

"They are about 1.5 miles away from White's bunker. Too much activity around the site tonight so they'll attempt to infiltrate before dawn".

The door swung open slowly and Maya came out with a towel wrapped around her, her wet hair slicked back reaching below her waist, almost at her hips. It made his heart flutter again.

He cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably, pointing to her shoulder. "I should… er… take care of your shoulder before I clean up" he said, avoiding her eye.

"Okay…" Maya replied, hesitantly, "Are you alright?"

Boone nodded, "Yes, fine."

Maya sat down on her bunk bed and allowed Boone to have a look. He sat down behind her and realised her hair was in the way. He gathered her hair gently in one hand and pulled it away from her bad shoulder. Taking some healing powder, Boone dabbed it on the affected areas with a piece of clean gauze from the first aid box. He could see Maya relax almost instantly as the healing powder began to take effect. He could still see the circle of inflammation, thinking about running his finger along the area again… but he pulled away.

 _'You're just tired, after you get some sleep you'll think clearly again, it's just exhaustion'_ he thought to himself.

"Right… all good now" he said, covering the shoulder with new gauze and bandages. He stood back up and almost darted into the bathroom, closing the door behind him before Maya could ask why he was acting strangely.

Maya didn't understand what was going on with Boone. His behaviour was out of place and didn't make sense.

 _'Unless… he feels uncomfortable around me'_ she thought nervously. Then realised his behaviour changed almost the instant she mentioned that her shoulder felt better after he ran a finger around it. "I shouldn't have said anything" she whispered almost inaudibly. Changing into some spare Brotherhood clothes they found that day in one of McNamara's locker's, Maya got into bed gently and rested on her good left shoulder. Every muscle in her body was sore from today's activities. She had overdone it, and now her body was rudely reminding her that she wasn't used to such activities, especially after she suffered a gunshot wound.

She sighed and tried to think of some good memories to help her drift off to sleep, but all she could think about was how she screwed up with Boone today.

 _'You're overreacting Maya, get some sleep and it'll be better in the morning'_ she thought to herself, _'You'll both forget this ever happened.'_

If things were different, if they were both in her timeline, then maybe…maybe there could have been… something... But this was a complicated situation in very unfortunate circumstances. No, there was no way for this to be allowed to happen. Although her actions today at Helios made her feel useful and accomplished, Maya still desperately wished to get back home - and that meant leaving everyone she made friendships with here behind. But for a split second, when she was solving those problems at the solar facility, she imagined herself staying in the Mojave and helping to get civilisation back on its feet in some small way… with Boone by her side.

With memories of her days in the University doing her PhD, working on her research project, joking with Daniel and being with her friends, Maya drifted off to sleep with a heavy heart, wondering desperately what had become of her friends and family…


	16. Chapter 17: The Last Thing You Never See

Boone cleaned up quickly in the shower. Being a soldier of the NCR it was drilled into them to use water efficiently and sparingly to the point where it was second nature. He dried off, got dressed, and was prepared to leave until his reflection caught his attention in the mirror. His hand hovered over the door handle, but his eyes were looking straight into his own. Something about them had changed, and he was concerned. He moved away from the door and leaned over the sink in front of the mirror to study himself, squinting as he studied the new scar on his eyebrow and cheek, an almost completely faded scar on his chin that he got from a fight before he even joined the NCR, the fine lines that were starting to appear around his green eyes, and his hair that was now a quarter of an inch long.

"Hmm…no, nothing there" he murmured. Then it hit him. It was something he had forgotten that he could feel, something that had eluded him for over a decade: hope and optimism. His eyes were exuding this, and it changed the way he carried and presented himself to others. It was disconcerting to him, to see how he could change in such a relatively short amount of time. The new group he was with and the bonds he had made with these people had affected him. Boone didn't know how to feel about that… He had spent years getting away from people, refusing to get close to others because of what he felt was coming to him. Shaking his head, he broke away from the mirror.

"As soon as this mission is complete, I'm done" he whispered, thinking about the Sniper's Nest. He didn't realize it at first, but it had become something that was a part of him; not a home in any sense, but it was the only thing that connected him to his past, like an anchor that had him chained in time. He planned to return to it after this was all finished… maybe he would be lucky enough to catch a Legionary, but that was wishful thinking considering Caesar's soldiers were scattered and had fled the Mojave.

He left the bathroom and sat down on the couch with his rifle and cleaning utensils, trying to avoid Maya's line of sight. He was still feeling a little awkward from the previous conversation, even though when he gave it a thought there was nothing to feel awkward about, but luckily she was facing away from him. When she didn't stir he looked up from his current task to see if she was alright.

"Maya?" he called out softly, but she didn't stir. He watched her for a moment, gauging whether to go up to her and see if she was alright, but her breathing was slow and steady. Maya was fast asleep and Boone breathed a sigh of relief. That was another thing that he had noticed that changed within him: caring a lot more about the people he was with. Then again, maybe that was that always there and he just forgot… Whatever the case was, Boone was feeling jumpy. He had been ever since McNamara left, and there was an overhanging feeling of impending dread. It was making him uneasy…

Boone busied himself for almost an hour cleaning his rifle, making sure all the dirt and debris from the weeks of using it would not impact his accuracy. He then put the rifle back together and leaned it on the wall next to the door. Apart from the light humming of the power running through the cables in the room, it was quiet. Leaning back on the couch, Boone stretched his arms and legs. Not used to staying in one place for so long, his muscles were cramping up, and as he stretched he could hear a few joints in his back and shoulder clicking. It was gone midnight and he was considering getting some shut eye, but his mind was restless. Laying down on the couch so as not to wake Maya up with more noise, he tried to get some sleep.

* * *

Almost an hour had passed and Boone was finally starting to feel the extent of his exhaustion. His mind couldn't race anymore; it was too tired. At some point, he didn't even realize he had been staring at the cracked ceiling, his mind blank but still awake. With a sigh and a grunt, he turned on his side to face Maya and watched as her body rose and fell with every breath. One thing that he never wanted to admit was that he cared about almost every decent human being he had ever met or come across, and Maya was the most intriguing of them all. He couldn't even imagine what being in this world, in this time, was like for her. All he knew was this life he had in this world, and anything else that was good that came along was an indulgence. After living in a modern civilization her entire life, coming here must seem like a nightmare she can't wake up from. He didn't want to admit this to himself, but he developed a great fondness for her; especially after watching her work and help his fellow NCR soldiers at Helios. For a split second at the solar plant while they were making repairs, he could imagine her staying in the Mojave and helping the NCR rebuild with a new influx of ideas, knowledge, and perspective… with him by her side. Called or uncalled, he would always be there for her, no matter what the circumstances. As he slowly drifted off to sleep, he wondered what kind of person he could have been had he been given the opportunity to start his life in Maya's timeline…

Two hours passed before Boone was jerked awake, much to his annoyance. He was dreaming that he was walking through a pristine field of green grass and sycamore trees, the likes he had never seen before in his life, other than faded old world pictures he saw in books. At first he didn't realize why he had woken up, he sat up and scanned the room to see if something had happened or someone else was inside. Nothing… Maya was still sleeping in the same position, no one was calling them on the radio, the door was locked tight and secure; there was nothing amiss. He lay back down and got into his comfortable position, but before he could get back to sleep, he heard it. Soft, almost silent sobbing…

A bit freaked out, he bolted upright and heard his quickened heart beat in his ears. It didn't take him long to realize it was coming from Maya. After every few breaths she took, he saw her shudder, followed by a whimper.

"Maya?" he called out gently, but she didn't stir. A bit concerned, he walked over to her slowly and sat down next to her, placing a hand gently on her arm. "Maya, are you awake?" She didn't reply, but saw the wet streaks of fresh tears down her cheeks and a damp patch on the pillow. Boone sighed, _'she must be stuck in a nightmare'_ he thought. He felt that her skin was cold. Without waking her, he grabbed his blanket and lay down next to her, pulling the blanket over them and putting his arm around her, holding her tightly but gently to let her know she wasn't alone. He felt another shuddering wave of sadness pass through her and a louder cry escape her.

"It's alright, you're safe… I'm here…" he whispered, knowing all too well how vivid these kinds of nightmares could be…the hurt they can cause.

Slowly he felt her muscles relax and her body stopped shuddering, her breathing getting back to normal. He held her close as he felt the nightmare disappear and her pained expression slowly turn serene again; and at the same time her own calm, steady breathing and the warmth helped Boone return to the beautiful field of green grass, tall sycamore trees with warm sunbeams peeking through the leaves.

* * *

 _The year: 2276_

 _The sound of marching and training drills filled Boone's ears. He was sitting on a bunk bed polishing his boots. Chief Hanlon pulled back the tent flap and yelled at Boone to get out and get in formation. With a firm "Yes Sir", Boone made his way out and got in line next to Manny._

 _"Manny… what are you doing here?" Boone turned to face him._

 _"Back straight! Line formation!" the Chief yelled at him and pushed his index finger into his shoulder, forcing him to comply and move back about half a step._

 _"Shhh, you wanna get us in trouble again?" Manny murmured looking straight ahead._

 _"Today we're going to do some drills! To see how good your reflexes are, we've picked out our fastest runners. I'm not going to tell you how many, that's your job to find out. Your objective is to spot them, and take them out! Their job is to be Legionaries, find your weakness, flank you and take you out" the Chief explained, moving up and down the line. "Don't worry! You won't be shooting real bullets at them. Instead you'll be using these" he procured what looked like a brightly coloured rubber ball, "These are filled with different paint colours. The shell outside is made of rubber." The Chief stopped in the middle of the line and turned on his heel to face them, holding the ball in front of him between his thumb and index finger. "Make no mistake, these will take an eye out if you get them in the head. My advice… don't do that." Everyone except for Boone laughed nervously. "I'm serious. Aim for their midsection or legs. One shot one hit counts" his second in command passed them all a canvas bag filled with the fake bullets. "You will note that each and every one of you has different colored bullets. For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, it's so we can keep score of who got the most kills"._

 _Boone secured the bag to his side, tying the strings of rope onto his belt._

 _"Ready? Let's go" the Chief marched them out of the compound and into the open wastes. It was a large area to cover, and their opponents could be hiding anywhere. The Chief stopped them when they reached a dip in the valley and held his hand up. "Load your bullets!" he yelled. Everyone frantically loaded their rifles, and after about 30 seconds he blew on his whistle, signifying the start of the exercise. Almost the entire group went off charging, except for Boone and Manny who stuck together and walked side by side surveying their environment. The rest of the group ran up and over a hill and out of sight. Boone spotted something odd in the corner of his eye behind a boulder on his right. He turned round, took aim, and fired in what felt like a split second._

 _"Urngh!" came a pained groan as black paint covered one of the opponents. He caught him in the calf, and with one hand covering the injured area the opponent limped off up the hill and back to the Chief, who was sitting in a chair overlooking the exercise field with his binoculars._

 _"Great work spotting that one! I almost didn't see him" Manny elbowed his friend in the side. Boone gave him a crooked smile, "Yeah you wish" he joked. Before Manny could reply with a quip of his own, they heard some yelling over the hill. Boone spotted an overgrowth and a rock large enough to provide cover for one person._

 _"Quick" he pointed Manny to the rock while he hid in the brush. More yelling could be heard and the "fffwap" sounds of paint bullets being fired. Then nothing. Boone and Manny stayed perfectly still. After a couple of minutes of silence, they heard a single pair of footsteps. One of the opponents was acting as a scout. He stood over the top of the hill and surveyed the area, then began to make his way down slowly in a half-crouched position. Suddenly, he noticed Boone's footprints and ran straight for the brush where he was hiding, a mock machete in his hand. Boone's eyes widened and he darted to the boulder where the opponent he shot before was hiding, while his attacker sprinted towards him. Then he heard a "fffwap" followed almost immediately by a pop as a rubber paint bullet struck the attacker in the back. He groaned in pain and stopped in his tracks just an arm's length away from Boone, throwing his mock machete to the floor in frustration and walking away with a bright yellow splatter on his back. Boone heard the Chief laugh in the distance. Boone looked over at Manny who was grinning from ear to ear and giving him a thumbs up, rifle in the other hand. He had saved Boone from being taken out too early, and no doubt he wouldn't let him forget this anytime soon. "Great…" Boone grinned, and stealthily made his way back to Manny. Hunkering down they planned to split up and encircle the hill. Manny went on the left and Boone on the right. On their way, they passed a couple of the soldiers that were already taken out. It didn't look like there were many left on their defending side as there were more defenders than opponents making their way to the Chief. One of the defenders looked beaten mentally. He saw Boone and shook his head._

 _Sticking low to the shrubs, Boone waited a while to see if anything caught his attention. After about half an hour of waiting, it looked like nothing was stirring. Then he saw Manny on top of the hill, crouching low and darting his head to check for any surprises. The made a wave gesture with his hand to signal to Boone the all clear. With a sharp inhale, Boone ventured out of his cover and made his way quickly to Manny. "Anything?" he asked._

 _Manny shook his head and raised an eyebrow, "I think we're the only defenders left"._

 _"Can't be, our group got about half a dozen of theirs" Boone mused._

 _"Yeah but they got eighteen of our guys! We're the only two left out of the original twenty" Manny replied. One thing about him that Boone appreciated was that he kept accurate score in these exercises they had the past couple of months, whereas Boone tended to estimate._

 _"So… how many do you think are left?"_

 _Manny's eyes squinted as he tried to recollect the number their team had taken out, "…. Eleven? That is assuming we're playing with the same number of opponents as there were defenders"._

 _Boone smiled crookedly and shook his head, "Remember what the Chief said about assumptions?"_

 _"Yeah, yeah…" Manny replied, looking annoyed, "they're the mother of all fuck ups"._

 _Boone nodded and quickly checked their area. They were in a precarious and exposed position. Boone spotted rocky terrain down the hill but suspected that that's where their opponents were hiding. Or at least some of them anyway._

 _"What do we do?" asked Manny, turning to Boone._

 _Boone checked the position of the sun. It was at the highest point, which was an ideal strategic advantage for them as they wouldn't cast long shadows if they snuck up on any one… but the same applied for them as well. He tilted his head towards the direction of the rough terrain, dotted with plenty of outcroppings to hide behind. Manny nodded and they split up again, Boone trying to flank them while Manny approached cautiously on the left. If anyone was in there, they did a good job keeping themselves hidden._

 _Manny approached a boulder cautiously, making sure not to disturb any of the dried twigs that were strewn on the ground, until something whizzed past his head so close he thought it grazed his right ear. "Fuck!" he muttered, rolling out of the way to the left and behind the boulder, gluing his back to it. He didn't even see where it came from as he was too busy trying to be stealthy. "Hey asshole! You're not supposed to aim for the head!" he yelled, and another couple of shots whizzed past the rock missing him. 'They're close…if only I could get around…' Manny thought._

 _Silently and without warning, an opponent came around the right side of the boulder and tackled Manny to the ground, exposing his head. Sure enough, another volley of fake bullets were fired just narrowly missing his face. Manny kicked his attacker away and got back up on his feet, picked up his gun and shot him in the chest with a splatter of yellow paint. With an annoyed grunt, the attacker pushed past Manny and made his way out of the exercise field. Manny's heart was beating fast and hard he could barely catch his breath. Getting back into his original position before the attacker knocked him over, he peeked around the corner to see if he could see the shooter. Just as he caught sight of his in the corner of his eye, another bullet almost grazed his neck. He retreated, rubbing his neck and feeling the goose bumps on his skin. He spotted the opponent, but he couldn't get a clear shot from his position._

 _"What the fuck is wrong with this asshole?!" he muttered. Then he heard two shots and he heard a yelp and a grunt. Manny quickly peeked around the corner again and to his relief saw the opponent that was shooting at him get up and leave followed by one of his friends, large black stains on their behinds. Manny stifled a laugh._

 _Over the next five or six hours, Boone and Manny used similar tactics to lure out their six other opponents, four of which were in a group and relatively easy to take out, while the fifth was more elusive and was tracked for almost two hours before they found him. So far, Boone was leading six kills to Manny's three._

 _Overall, they had taken out most of the opposing team. If the numbers were kept even, then they had four left to find and eliminate, unless they were taken out first…_

 _Manny and Boone were huddled in a trench, discussing their next move. It was getting late, and when Boone looked up he could already see a couple of stars. The sun was setting on the horizon. They didn't have a lot of time left…_

 _"Should we radio the Chief? Ask if we're to carry on tomorrow?" Manny asked, studying the darkening sky._

 _Boone shook his head, "No, this ends when either team prevails… as long as it takes for one side to win"._

 _"How are we supposed to track and find them in the dark?" Manny asked. Boone could tell he was getting frustrated and annoyed, but he wasn't ready to give in to pessimism._

 _"We stick together, we work together, and we won't get taken out. Don't let negative thoughts distract you. This is supposed to get us ready for the real thing, remember?" Boone advised. Manny nodded, looking slightly embarrassed at his outburst._

 _"Alright, I'll follow your lead" he said, shouldering his weapon as they got ready to move. Boone reloaded his weapon and they moved down the trench, keeping their heads low and listening for any footsteps._

 _In a couple hundred feet they reached the end of the trench and an outcrop of overgrowth, boulders, and some rusted old world cars. A perfect hiding spot…_

 _Boone signalled to Manny to head for the derelict car. Quickly and silently in a hunched stance, they both jogged to it and quickly surveyed their environment. Crouching by the car for a few minutes, Boone was about to signal Manny to move out, until he heard some twigs snapping about twenty feet away from them. Boone froze and looked to the direction of the noise, but before he could do anything he heard a fffwap and the sound of rubber making contact with Manny's protective chest plate behind him. Boone caught a glint of light that reflected off the opponent's protective eye wear, aimed his weapon at him and fired. He hit him square in the chest._

 _"God damn it!" Manny grumbled, wiping green paint off his chest, "Well… I'm out" he said despondently. "Kick their asses for me, will ya?"_

 _Boone nodded, giving Manny a discreet salute with his index finger and watched him walk away along with the opponent that he had just taken out._

 _'Just me now…' he thought, anticipation gripping him. This was the first time that he was in an exercise where he was faced to complete without having Manny to watch his back. It was slightly disconcerting. Boone tried to push aside doubts and anxiety and focused on the task at hand: eliminating the enemy. He pushed forward, trying to keep hidden in the dense brush and rocks that were scattered plentifully in the area. 'Great places to hide and play cat and mouse' Boone contemplated. But before he could go any further, he caught a pair of eyes looking straight at him from a dense brush to his right not two feet from him._

 _"Shit!" he exhaled as the opponent jumped for him with a blunted machete. He dodged three swipes and a stab, grabbed the opponent's arm and was about to throw him to the ground when his friend came pelting in and knocked them both flat on their backs. Panting, Boone rolled away from them both, aimed and fired at the first opponent, catching him in the thigh. Before he could fire at the second, his weapon was kicked away from him, bending his hand backwards in an awkward position. Boone cried out in pain and clutched his hand taking a few steps back, temporarily distracted by the pain shooting up his arm. That was a big mistake, as he opened himself up for attack, and that's exactly what his opponent did. With a powerful kick to his stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs, Boone was thrown six feet onto his back. Clutching his stomach with his bad hand, he fumbled for his weapon. Then he remembered it was knocked away from him. Frantically scanning the ground, he caught sight of it just a few feet away from him on his left. As his attacker lunged at him, he rolled on his side towards his weapon. Still unable to catch his breath and feeling like a fish out of water, he grabbed his weapon and fired blindly in the direction of the opponent. Although he couldn't hear much past his heart thumping in his ears and his gasps for breath, he did hear the sputter of two paint bullets meeting their target. Still on his back, he lay there trying to catch his breath. One of the opponents marked with black paint stood over him and said something to him, but Boone couldn't hear anything. It was as if the sounds of the world were muted and all he could hear was his heart racing as he lay there trying to gasp for air. The opponent shook his head and walked away, not even bothering to help him. It was then that Boone realised he was all alone, no one was there to help him if he got hurt. And that was one of the scariest thoughts he had since joining up with the NCR._

 _Adrenaline was coursing through his body now, and finally his lungs obeyed his demands for air. They stopped spasming and finally allowed air to reach him. A long and deep rasping gasp emanated from deep within him, as if he was drowning and finally allowed to breathe again. He clutched his chest and pulled himself up to his knees, taking deep gulps of air and trying to steady his heart rate. Slowly he staggered up onto his feet, holding his weapon against his hip with his good hand. He looked down at his injured hand which was an angry red and beginning to swell. When he tried to move his hand, he experienced a shooting pain all the way up his arm and he realised he had limited movement in that hand. 'Great... Probably broke the arm. Just what I needed' he thought angrily. Taking out a bandage from his minimal first aid pouch on his belt, he wrapped it tightly around his hand, wrist, and the length of his arm. Once he completed that task, he quickly looked around him, checking to see if he was being watched. Night was setting in quickly, and Boone had to find the last opponent. He was tired, hungry, and in pain. Clutching his weapon, he carried on with his mission, pushing forward._

 _About half an hour had passed and Boone didn't find the last remaining opponent. Cursing his luck, he hid behind a rock and tried to think where would be the best position to set up and wait for the opponent to come to him. He remembered passing by a rather large boulder about half a klick behind him, so he decided that was where he would make his stand. If he got caught first, so be it, but he didn't have the stamina to carry on like this anymore. Slowly and carefully, he made his way there._

 _The boulder was immense, approximately fifteen feet high. Luckily there were some smaller rocks around it, making it easier to climb up to the top. Boone made his way up as quickly as he could and lay down flat on his belly once he reached the pinnacle. He glanced around and couldn't see anyone, it didn't look like he was followed or that anyone else was around the area. By this time it was almost pitch black. The only light source that was vaguely visible was around Camp Golf, about five clicks away. Boone was taken aback by how much ground he had covered; he must have easily walked almost double that distance. Then he had an idea to improve his stealth even more. He untied his satchel filled with paint bullets and counted five left. Seeing as there was only one more opponent left, he could spare a bullet or two. He picked one up and rolled it in between his thumb and index finger. 'I wonder if this will count as me shooting myself' he thought amused, placing the rubber bullet in his palm and squeezing it gently until he felt it pop. He covered his face and head with the paint, and what was left he rubbed on his arms. At least this way he was less likely to be spotted._

 _Boone lay there with his weapon in hand, looking down his sights, for what felt like hours. Finally, as a new moon reached its peak, he saw faint movement up ahead. A crouched figure appeared out of some shrubs and rocks, appearing to check their surroundings. Boone's heartbeat quickened, and he focused at the figure down his sights. The problem was his opponent was a couple hundred feet too far away, and his current weapon was only capable of handling about 250 to 300 feet. So, Boone waited for his prey to come closer. A couple of minutes passed before his opponent felt more confident to move, and thankfully he was moving in Boone's direction._

 _'That's it… just a little more' he said to himself, feeling his trigger finger itching to pull the trigger. But his target stopped about thirty feet shy from ideal firing range, kneeling next to some battered and rusted barrels._

 _"Dammit" he whispered under his breath, "come on, move". Minutes passed and it seemed like his target was set on waiting it out. Boone cursed under his breath, trying to think of what his next move should be. He wasn't going to be effective in close hand to hand combat, and for all he knew this opponent could be armed with a firing weapon that could take him out before he even landed a blow. No, he would have to either wait for him to move, or risk the shot…_

 _Boone decided to take the risk. He took a deep breath, looked down his sights and lined up his target. He realised that if he aimed for his chest at his current position that the bullet would miss and hit the barrel, alerting his enemy to his position. So, he aimed a few degrees up at the top of his head._

 _'God, I hope I don't hit him in the head and kill him!' he prayed._

 _He lined up his shot and exhaled slowly as he pulled the trigger. The bullet caught him at the highest point between his shoulder blades, and with a grunt his opponent was knocked to the ground. He watched down his sights until he saw his opponent was okay and got up on his feet and raise both arms up as he faced in the direction of Camp Golf. Then to Boone's surprise he saw a white flare shoot up from their starting position, indicating that the drill was over._

 _He picked up his gear and made his way back to the Chief. Once he arrived he was greeted with cheers and victory hoots by his fellow team mates._

 _"What happened there?" the Chief pointed to Boone's face and arms._

 _Boone smiled and tried to wipe some of the paint off his face._

 _"Come on, there's someone who wants to talk to you" the Chief motioned for him to follow as Manny came running up to his side and patting him on the back._

 _Boone followed the Chief into one of the tents, where he was greeted by an officer wearing a red beret with a bear skull and crossed rifles behind it, a slogan that read "the last thing you never see"._

 _Before Boone could properly address the officer, he was greeted in a friendly manner. "Hello Boone, I've heard a lot about you from the Chief here", he said, looking Boone up and down, "I see you are tonight's victor. That was some great shooting back there, especially that last opponent. He must have been… what? 330 feet away?"_

 _Boone nodded, "Yes sir, sounds about right"._

 _The officer smiled and walked up to him, handing him a bottle of purified water which Boone gladly took. "I would like to offer you a new posting" he said._

 _Boone cocked his head in curiosity, "Oh? I thought I was going to stay here and train with the others"._

 _"I'm here to offer you a position with my team, the 1st NCR Recon sniper battalion. You seem to have great aim, but if you're willing, we can train you to be even better" he said, taking off his beret and holding it in front of Boone to take._

 _Boone glanced down at the beret then up at the officer again, thinking about his reply._

 _The officer smiled, as if knowing what he was thinking about, "The pay's better too" he added._

 _Boone reached out slowly, took the beret and examined it in his hands._

 _"Where do I sign up?" he asked._

 _The officer smiled and nodded towards the beret in his hands, "You just did soldier. Welcome to the 1st NCR Recon. Believe me, you won't regret this decision."_


	17. Chapter 18: The Monster In The East

It was the early hours of the morning before Maya was roused from her sleep by her aching muscles and the adamant growling of her empty stomach. Slowly opening her aching eyes, she squinted around in front of her, slightly uncertain of where she was. Then she remembered she was back in McNamara's safehouse and the memories of the awkwardness between her and Boone crept up. She cringed and wondered if she should just carry on trying to sleep, but another deep grumble from her stomach urged her otherwise.

She decided to get up, sluggishly moving her legs to the edge of the bed. Then she realised there was something heavy resting around her waist. She peeled back the blanket and was shocked to find an arm around her… It was Boone's arm!

 _'What the...?'_ she thought confused, twisting her head round to see Boone lying next to her. Judging by his steady breathing, he was sound asleep.

Maya was wondering what had happened yesterday when she fell asleep. She was clearly missing something, as he didn't seem like the type of person who would normally do something like this. Maya wondered whether she should wake him and ask if everything was alright, but then she remembered that he had barely gotten any sleep over the past couple of days and she didn't want to be the cause of even more sleep deprivation. Besides that he looked rather peaceful, and the slight scowl he had while he was conscious that wrinkled his forehead a bit was gone.

Very gently, Maya moved his arm to the side and rolled out of bed and went over to the cooking station to get some readymade food. Rummaging around quietly, she remembered they had an opened package of Snack Cakes, so she grabbed two and sat down on the couch to eat them. Occasionally she would glance over in Boone's direction to see if she had woken him, but it looked like he was still asleep. Then the book that Ibsen gave her about the Brotherhood of Steel caught her attention. Picking it up curiously, she opened to the beginning and started reading. In the very front was a faded old style black and white photograph of a group of men.

"Captain Maxson…" Maya whispered as she read the typed name underneath the photograph, looking at the image of a long dead soldier staring back at her. It looked like the photograph was a scanned copy, and the date on the photograph, November 1st 2077, was roughly hand written. She wondered if that was Captain Maxson's handwriting. The name was kind of familiar to her… like she had heard it before. Then she remembered: it was her father who had mentioned the same name once before. He was a close friend who had died in combat trying to get Maya's father and their team to safety. Maya wondered if the man she was looking at was in some way related.

The book was long, detailing almost every documented incident that was encountered between the Brotherhood and various factions, including one called the Enclave which Maya found fascinating. She even found recorded incidents of Brotherhood of Steel members forming their own separatist movements like Sergeant Dennis Allen and his small group of Paladins. And it looked like in some extreme cases that members of the Brotherhood went rogue.

 _'I wonder if Nolan would technically be classified as a rogue'_ she thought, fascinated by the whole hierarchical structure that was mostly militaristic in nature but certainly had its own specific added elements to it. Then the name Maxson caught her attention again, this time almost a hundred years into the future.

"Elder Roger Maxson died of cancer in 2135, succeeded by his son, John Maxson, as Elder" she whispered as she read the records out loud, "The Maxson line continued its famous rule after Jeremy Maxson was awarded the title of High Elder in 2231, and in 2283 Arthur Maxson became the youngest Brotherhood member to be awarded the title of Elder at only 16 years of age".

 _'Holy crap! 16 and an Elder?!'_ Maya was amazed. It was a good thing that Boone was asleep, otherwise he might have laughed at her surprised expression, with her neck craning forward and eyes bulging as she stared at the page in the book. There was a picture of the Elder, albeit Maya suspected that it was taken at least a decade after he was given the promotion as he clearly did not look 16. He was a handsome man, with dark brown almost black hair, blue eyes, and a rather modern haircut and beard. His coiffure reminded her of some that she had seen men favour in her time. She carried on reading, interested to know everything about the Brotherhood and all events and encounters they were involved in. So far, it looked like their intentions were good, almost noble in some respects, but Maya couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it than that.

After about an hour of reading, Maya's eyes were beginning to feel sore again. She closed the book and rubbed her eyes for a few seconds, which helped to alleviate some of the tension she was feeling in her head. Looking over at the bunk bed she noticed Boone had changed position and was now laying on his back, a quiet snore escaping him every couple of breaths, and she wondered whether it was worth getting some more rest. Her sore eyes and limbs convinced her that rest was the best decision. She walked over to her bunk bed where Boone was sleeping, deliberating whether to get back into her original spot or move to the next one along. Only problem was, there was only one blanket, and it was wrapped around Boone. Slowly and as quietly as possible, Maya went over to edge of the bunk bed and crawled under the blanket, but in her drowsy clumsiness she accidentally hit her heel hard on the edge of the bed and let out a pained whimper.

"Wh-what I'm up, what's up?" came Boone's groggy voice next to her as he tried to sit up, eyes squinting and reaching around to get to his rifle.

"I'm sorry, nothing's wrong, I just hit my heel" she replied trying to re-assure him. He turned to face her, eyes still squinting.

"What were you doing?" he asked suspiciously.

Maya shook her head and explained, "I got up, had 2 Snack Cakes, then got carried away reading the Brotherhood of Steel book Ibsen gave me. Then I realised I'm still tired, it's only 4AM, and I wanted to get back to sleep under the warm blanket".

With a nod and a grunt, he lowered himself back down on the bed and closed his eyes.

Maya turned to him, a question she had wanted to ask him, but wasn't sure whether to disturb him. As if sensing that she had something on her mind, Boone nodded and asked "What is it?"

"Just…curious to know how come you decided to lay down next to me"

"You were crying in your sleep" he stated frankly, "Figured you were having a nightmare, wanted you to know it wasn't real."

Maya was confused and cocked her head to one side as she tried to remember her dreams, but nothing came up. "I don't remember", she said as she lay back down and stared at the ceiling.

"Then it worked" Boone replied softly.

Maya sighed, turned away from Boone and tucked herself in the blanket, trying to leave as much room for him as possible. It was a bit of a challenge on what was only slightly wider than a single bed. "Thank you" she whispered, and before she fell fast asleep she felt the weight of his arm around her waist again…

* * *

 _06:20_

Maya woke with a chill down her spine. Her eyes almost shot open, adrenaline already coursing through her veins. She sat up and looked for Boone, but he was already up, rifle in hand and standing next to the door with his back glued to the wall. Maya distinctly remembered hearing a scraping and shuffling noise just before she woke up, and that was what had set her in panic mode.

Boone pressed his index finger to his lips, his eyes wide and his posture rigid. He motioned for her to get her knife and get into the bathroom. Maya nodded, quickly and silently grabbing her combat knife from the end table and stood just inside the entrance of the bathroom, her eyes darting between the door and Boone around the corner. Neither of them said a word, nor asked who was outside the doors. McNamara would have radioed in that he was on his way back and would have given them an ETA, but they received nothing and there was no indication to suggest that whoever was on the other side was friendly.

After a couple of minutes, the shuffling and scraping stopped and it appeared that whoever was outside the door had given up. Boone gave it a few minutes before he moved away from the door and towards Maya.

"What was that?" she asked worriedly.

Boone shook his head, "Don't know, gone now".

"But someone was clearly trying to get in! Weren't they?" Maya looked at him wide eyed.

"Yeah, looks that way" he replied, but upon seeing the worry in her face he tried to assure her that there was no way anyone could get inside the safehouse without the proper combination and key.

"You're right, I'm just feeling a little…jumpy" she tried to shake the feeling off.

Boone smiled down at her, "I think we're clear".

As he finished his sentence, an explosion went off from the entrance to the safehouse that sent both flying into a wall in the bathroom, and Boone into the bathtub. And then nothing…

Boone forced himself to come around, but he had suffered a concussion from his head hitting the wall. He could feel warm blood trickle down his neck. His ears were ringing and the room was a blur. Before he could make out a figure in a black hood and face mask walk towards him, he was knocked down on the ground by a powerful blow to the stomach.

"Stay down you wretched Profligate!"

 _'No! Legion!'_ Boone thought as he sunk to his knees and sputtered blood, feeling his entire body fill with rage and hatred, _'How did they know?'_

He heard the intruder's footsteps walk away from him and towards Maya, picking her up and leisurely making his way out of the bathroom. Suddenly a panic overwhelmed Boone and he realised what would happen to Maya if he didn't stop this from happening.

Even though he could barely see, was bleeding profusely from his head and various cuts all over his body from bits of shrapnel that had embedded themselves into him, and his hearing was temporarily impaired, he lunged with all his strength at the Legionary enemy. He felt their bodies collide and briefly saw Maya knocked to one side, still unconscious, a bad cut on her forehead sending a thin red line to trickle down her face.

"…Maya…No…" he grunted, trying to crawl to her only to be elbowed in the side of his head by the Legionary and kicked to one side as if he was a rag doll.

"If it were up to me, I'd kill you right now degenerate" his voice hissed in anger, "But your death is not mine to claim". Boone heard footsteps approach him and a hand grab him roughly by the jaw, twisting his head up at an awkward angle. It felt as if his neck was going to snap…

"When the monster of the east claims this land in the name of Caesar, your death will be long and painful"

Boone's eyes shot open, "No…. Lanius….is dead" he gasped, but his words were met with ominous laughter.

"Our Legate is very much alive, and looking forward to his revenge on you" the Legionary sneered, "Or…maybe…we'll make you watch from a cross as we turn _her_ into our slave" he pointed at Maya.

Boone howled in anger, but before he could get away from the strong grip of his enemy and launch himself at him, he was knocked unconscious by a swift kick to the chest that knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying onto the cooking station counter. With the last few moments of bleary consciousness, he watched helplessly as Maya was picked up and carried out of the safehouse before darkness enveloped him and he wished for death to take him…


	18. Chapter 19: Heartaches By The Numbers

The darkness was disrupted by flashes of memories of Boone's life, almost as if everything was replaying right in front of him and he was just an outside observer. He saw his childhood, with a mother who loved and cared for him and a father who was away a lot. His adolescent and young adult life blurred together, with many memories of serving in the NCR, so much pain and bloodshed, so many lives lost; then it came…memories of Carla, the first time they met at the Strip, the day they got married; it was like there was a light in his life again. Those precious memories, fleeting moments of happiness, were all that had given him some respite and purpose in his life.

 _'So, this is how it ends…Maybe it's my time…'_ he thought.

However, more recent memories came flooding back; fighting Caesar's Legion at the Hoover Dam with the Courier, watching the Legion retreat and celebrating their victory with his old comrades in arms. Joining up with the NCR 1st Recon again after the Courier left, the Victory Ceremony that ensued, then the long years of tracking and hunting down Legion stragglers. Their faces were burned in his mind, he saw their deaths replay again in his mind. Every face. Every God damn one of them begging for mercy…mercy they never showed him, or Carla, or their unborn child… Mercy he never showed them…

Then followed the long years of waiting at the Sniper's Nest, the haunting experience he felt being so close to the place where he made the decision to end his wife's life to not let her or their child suffer as Legion slaves. Waiting for something, anything, to happen, to give him a sign. Boone wasn't a superstitious person, but after everything that he had done, and everything that had happened to him, he believed that there was such a thing as universal justice. After all, it had found him when it took Carla and the baby as payment for Bitter Springs, and it found him now again. He was ready to give up, to give in to the darkness and let it take him away; but it wasn't done with him yet. The final memory of the explosion, Maya lying unconscious on the floor, being picked up and taken away by the hooded figure...by that Legionary scum. And at that moment it hit him. She was the sign, Maya was the one he had been waiting for all this time. If he hadn't been at the Sniper's Nest he would never have tracked McNamara down, and he would never have found her. She was his purpose...

 _"…Maybe… we'll make you watch from a cross as we turn_ her _into our slave"_ the Legionary's malicious words echoed in his ears. A furious rage surged from his mind and spread through his body as he made a conscious decision to fight his current fate. He never took the easy route in his life, and he wasn't about to do so now. He was going to do what he did best: fight.

 _"No…Not her, not ever!"_

Boone opened his eyes. "Maya", he croaked, eyes scanning around the rubble searching for traces of her. All that was left was a small smear of blood on the floor a few paces in front of him, most likely from that cut on her head. Boone tried to move his arms and legs but they felt numb, and once he looked down he realised why. A large pool of his own blood was spreading around him; he was bleeding out.

 _"Craig…Maya…Come in"_ a familiar female voice came crackling through the radio in the far corner of the room. It almost didn't sound real, as if he was hearing it in a dream.

 _"God damn it! Pick up the damn radio!... If either of you can hear this, we're ten minutes out"._

 _'The radio! McNamara…'_ thought Boone as he dragged himself onto his knees and half crawled, half stumbled across the room to get to it. Bleeding out was an odd sensation; his body felt drunk and numb, his skin was deathly pale and felt cold, and every movement was ten times more difficult to do than it should normally be, as if he was wearing 100lb weights on each limb after running a marathon. With a yell of pain, he staggered and fell to the floor in front of the radio, managing to catch the microphone in his fingertips.

"McNamara…hurry…" he managed to gasp.

 _"Boone?! What happened? Are you alright?"_ Came Veronica's voice.

"They took her! Hurry!" he cried, begging them to pick up the pace as he lost consciousness.

 _"We're on our way! Hold on, we're just a few minutes away…."_

* * *

"Quick! Hand me the super stimpak in the med kit!" McNamara yelled at Irvine, who fished out the encased syringe and tossed it to him.

Ripping the super stimpak out of the box, he injected the healing medicine into Boone's left thigh muscle and propped his head up with a dusty pillow to help him breathe. Ibsen, Ramos, and Irvine encircled him, waiting…hoping that he would wake up.

With a sharp inhale, Boone was back in the land of the living. Ibsen checked his pulse and after a few brief seconds smiled and nodded, "He's back!".

"..Maya" Boone called out, squinting at the early morning light that was now filling the room through the hole in the wall.

"What happened?" Ramos asked, inserting a needle into a vein in his arm and attaching a blood pack to it.

"Maya…He took her…Man in a black robe…Legionary!" Boone gasped trying to sit up, but McNamara pushed him back down.

"You're not going anywhere like that. We'll get you into the Vertibird on a stretcher" he explained while Irvine gave him some water to drink and Ramos got the stretcher ready. McNamara admired his determination. If the circumstances were different, he would have made an amazing Paladin, possibly even Elder.

McNamara was concerned about the new threat; it was his understanding that the Legion were thwarted by the Brotherhood and the NCR at the Battle of Hoover Dam, yet here was a Legionary, a powerful one at that, who ambushed an NCR First Recon Sniper in a BOS safehouse. How did he know where to find them? Who was he?

"Boone, do you have any idea who he was? How he found you?" he asked.

Boone took a moment to recollect his thoughts and the memories of the incident, replaying them in his head again. He could feel his eyes welling up.

"I…saw a similar figure, back at Novac…Think it was him. He…was at the McBride house", a tear rolled down his cheek, "He probably found…my tracks. Followed them here..."

McNamara nodded at the possibility. Although Boone was an amazing sniper and adept at hiding his tracks, this was a Legionary who had years of professional tracking training and experience. A bent twig, some half-hidden footprints would have been more than enough for him.

"It's not your fault Boone" McNamara reassured him, "We'll find that son of a bitch and make him pay. And we'll get Maya back and finish this mission, once and for all."

"Don't you dare leave me behind" Boone warned, looking up at McNamara and giving him a slightly threatening look, "I'm coming with you".

McNamara nodded, recognising the dogged determination in his behaviour. He was set on killing that Legionary as soon as he was spotted, and any other enemy that stood in their way. "We leave in fifteen minutes" he acknowledged, handing Boone his sniper rifle.

"Fan-fucking-tastic" Boone grinned.

* * *

Alerio was deep in thought, staring into the dying flames of his campfire at what was once the Legion Raid Camp to the North East of Wolfhorn Ranch. Running a gold coin absentmindedly with Caesar's head stamped on it, he was going over the next stage of the process in his mind. A bright glint from the fire's light reflecting off the coin roused him from his thoughts and he looked at it, sitting in the palm of his hand. He remembered when he got this coin; it was the last gift he received from Caesar before he was butchered at his own fort. Caesar had promoted him to Centurion after Vulpes Inculta was murdered at Nipton by the Courier. Alerio was devastated when the news of Caesar's demise reached him three days later, but he could not deviate from the mission that Caesar had given him: to infiltrate the Brotherhood along with Centurion Niveus, and find out as much as they could about the Brotherhood to help the Legion spread and survive. He couldn't even help his fellow Legion brothers at the Battle of Hoover Dam. After the battle, information had reached his ears from certain reliable sources that he was labelled a coward and a traitor by the Legion survivors for not being there at the battle. Angered by the thought of false rumours spreading about him by Legion survivors, he stood up abruptly and kicked dirt into the fire, watching the flames die to nothing but embers. It was just as well, the night was fast approaching and a bright light in the middle of the wasteland was like a beacon for psychos and raiders.

At least 72 hours had passed since he gave the order for Decanus Caius to go and find McNamara and the group of profligates. If he did not return with the female called Maya soon, Alerio would have to take matters into his own hands and find another method of obtaining her.

"He has arrived" came the voice of his newest Legionary Recruit.

 _'Excellent'_ thought Alerio, nodding his acknowledgement to the Recruit.

A masked Caius, with goggles, sports helmet and bandanna covering his nose and mouth, walked into the camp with the female in his arms. He was drenched in sweat and steam was coming off his body. He had run almost the entire way from the BOS safehouse to meet Alerio at the Legion Raid Camp, but showed no signs of fatigue. Alerio was impressed by his stamina as the journey was almost 40 miles.

"Awe Centurion, I have brought you what you asked for" he said, walking up to Alerio. Caius was a full foot taller than him, with broad shoulders and a muscular frame. Before Caesar was killed, he was their most skilled tracker and brutal fighter, tasked with the most challenging missions that many others could not do or failed to complete. His physical prowess, tracking abilities, and strategic thinking were hard to match by anyone else Alerio had encountered, even the Rangers…

"Awe Decanus Caius, you succeed in yet another sensitive mission. You bring pride and honour to the Legion, well done" Alerio praised him, knowing Caius's narcissistic streak would appreciate it. And in these times, he couldn't afford to lose the support of any Legionaries still associated with him, so he had to turn up the charm occasionally.

"Thank you Centurion" he bowed his head, "What do you want me to do with the woman?"

Alerio strode over and glanced at her, examining her facial features, opening one of her eyelids to see the colour of her eyes and if she would flinch and wake up, but when she didn't he checked her pulse. Thankfully it was strong, she was just unconscious.

 _'This is definitely her'_ he thought, recalling the physical description Niveus had provided him.

"Hmmm…pity" he said, picking a strand of her hair off her face and moving it to the side while his eyes travelled down to her chest, "she would have made good breeding stock for our men. Place her on the sleeping bag" he pointed next to the remains of the campfire.

Caius complied and set her down gently, not wanting to cause further injuries while Alerio inspected the cut on her forehead.

"What's this?" he asked, referring to the fresh scab and red and purple bruise that had formed on her temple. He looked up at Caius suspiciously.

"An unavoidable injury" Caius stated un-apologetically, seating himself onto a nearby rock and downing the entire contents of his water canister. Even though his face was masked, Alerio could tell he didn't care as long as his job was done.

Alerio proceeded to add some healing powder onto Maya's wound. Ultimately the judge of Caius's completed task was not himself, but rather the Legate, who would make the final verdict on his satisfaction...or displeasure. Although Alerio had respect for Caius as the ultimate Legionary soldier in battle, he did not care for his attitude and overconfidence. One day he won't have an excuse to hide behind, and Alerio was looking forward to seeing the Legate's response.

Motioning to the Legionary Recruit, they picked Maya up and moved her onto a Brahmin drawn cart and began their trek south down Route 95 to meet with Niveus at Camino Airstrip and to present the Legate with a gift that could change their entire future…


	19. Chapter 20: Tracking A Tracker

_***Several hours passed after McNamara and his team got back to Boone and found him bleeding out in the safehouse. Boone's condition was severe, requiring immediate medical attention which McNamara provided to the best of his abilities. The stimpaks aided in stopping the bleeding and speeding up the healing process, however Boone was drifting in and out of consciousness. After Boone had given them some information about the strange enemy passing into Novac, McNamara ordered Veronica to travel down there and see what she could find out about what had happened. Meanwhile the rest of the group tended to their injured companion, who was suffering from a concussion and two broken ribs, getting him well enough to walk and keep up if needs be by evening. Once he could stand and walk without assistance, Craig Boone insisted that they leave the safehouse and try to track down the Legionary who had kidnapped Maya, only to find that the task wasn't as simple as he had hoped...***_

* * *

A scream of fury and desperation escaped Boone's lungs; deep and guttural it pierced the night's darkness with his rage. He paced, limping, up and down the dirt path where they lost the trail, his mind was racing and he was seeing red; the only way to alleviate his anger was to kill Legionary soldiers.

"Boone calm down!" McNamara warned, trying to grab hold of him and bring him to his senses but Boone jerked away and pushed him aside.

 _'I should have known, I should have shot that scum the second he was in my sights. Oh, God, I had him in my crosshairs, if only I took the shot…'_ he thought mournfully.

"Get a hold of yourself! This isn't over" Ramos tried to re-assure him but it was no use. Although Boone's mind wasn't injured or impaired, his body was, and the stress and emotions he was feeling was physically crippling. Boone stumbled and fell to his knees, clenching his fists so hard the veins in his arms and neck started to bulge out. Images, memories, of him at the Sniper's Nest were coming back to him as if it had all happened just a few weeks ago, looking down his sights at Carla…

Everything was flooding back in a tsunami of emotions and sensations, exactly like the ones he was feeling on that day. The burden he was carrying made him feel very alone, even though he was surrounded by the group who were worried about him and wanted to help. They didn't know…none of them knew the burden he carried every day, and now… now that burden was increased by another innocent who suffered because of him. He could hear his heart racing in his ears as the sounds around him began to fade and he was starting to have trouble breathing.

"Boone?" McNamara asked, kneeling next to him. Boone was panting, his breathing was haggard and every time he inhaled there was a rattling sound in his chest; it sounded like he had fluid in his lungs. "Boone, you have to calm yourself" he placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to help him stand up but Boone crumpled to the floor, tears running freely down his face. His ribs felt like someone was trying to crush him and no matter how many deep breaths he tried to take it didn't feel like he could get enough oxygen into his system.

"Stimpak! Now!" McNamara motioned to anyone in the group who could hand him one. Ibsen shakily handed one over, eyes wide with worry and fear. This was the first time Boone had broken down, and it was a terrifying sight for all who witnessed his PTSD kick in at full power. McNamara injected the medication into a bulging vein in Boone's arm and straightened his body so he could breathe easier. Finally, after a couple of minutes, the rattling in his lungs was diminishing and his breathing was getting back to normal. McNamara didn't know how long Boone could keep this up. He was badly hurt at the safehouse, lost a lot of blood, and was still suffering from a concussion; he needed rest.

"Maybe…maybe you should stay with Irvine until – "

"NO!" Boone almost yelled at him, "No, I need to…I need to find Maya".

"That's what we're trying to do, but you're injured, you can't carry on like this if you expect to live" McNamara replied.

"Doesn't matter about me, I need…I will find her" Boone said through gritted teeth, pushing McNamara away and shakily getting himself back onto his feet.

McNamara frowned at Boone, but stepped back and allowed him some space. Whatever he was going through, he was clearly in a lot of pain. Although Maya's abduction deeply affected McNamara, he did not feel himself about to go into a frenzy; something else must have triggered Boone's reaction, something from his past possibly but he wasn't about to ask for an explanation. Not yet… That would have to wait. He had other worries now, one of them was trying to get the trail back.

"Alright, but we're coming with you and we're going to help, whether you like that or not" he stated firmly.

Fast moving footsteps on gravel drew their attention to the West. It was Veronica, who was back from her run to the McBride house to see if she could find any clues as to what this legionary wanted and where he was going to next. She jogged toward them, then slowed to a walk about fifteen paces from the group.

"What did you find?" Ramos asked, handing her a canister of water to drink, but Boone could tell from her expression that the news wasn't favourable.

Panting, Veronica shook her head, "Nothing good I'm afraid" she replied taking the canister from him. "McBride is dead, someone hacked at him with a machete… I would wager that someone is the Legionary psychopath we're chasing down. I gotta tell you…made me sick to my stomach." She placed her hands on her hips and hunched her shoulders, her complexion pale as if she was going to be sick.

' _Another innocent dead…because of me'_ Boone thought, hanging his head.

"Was there any indication of what happened? Why a Legion soldier was there?" Ramos asked.

Veronica nodded, a dire look crossing her face as she pulled out a tattered diary book from her bag. It was McBride's…

With Ibsen's PipBoy lamp light shining over the book, they skimmed through the pages close to the end for any clues. The information they were looking for was at the very end, it was the last entry that was made over three days ago.

"Here!" Ramos pointed to a paragraph in the entry:

 _"I tried to fight him off, but there was nothing I could do… He took her. My Alice… Threatened to rape and crucify her if I didn't do as he demanded and that he would slit her throat if I ever attempted to go and rescue her myself. What am I to do?... There's no one left to help me here in Novac, and I don't have enough caps to hire any mercenaries… If only Manny was still around, or that other feller Craig. I tried calling on the radio for aid from the NCR, but they called me crazy and said there's no Legion in the area. Manny would have believed me._

 _I'm all alone in this…_

 _Oh God, Alice my love…I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from him. I don't know why he wanted me to keep an eye out for any unexpected visitors in Novac...maybe he's looking for deserters. He demanded I contact him on the radio, set the frequency on the device himself. He promised if I do this he'll bring you back to me._

 _I'll see you soon my love"_

Ibsen inhaled sharply as if he had an idea, "That's it! The frequency!" and he started scrolling through his PipBoy, searching for something.

"What are you talking about Ibsen? How the hell is the radio frequency going to help us get Maya back?" Ramos asked confused.

"First of all, we have a decision to make…" McNamara reminded them, "Unless Veronica has found Alice at the McBride house, she is still a missing individual" he looked over at Veronica, whose gaze fell down to the ground at her feet, shaking her head.

"No, she wasn't there."

"We have to decide our first course of action. Granted Maya is our priority, but we cannot disregard the fact that there is an innocent civilian held captive by the Legion somewhere in the Mojave" McNamara looked at each one of his companions. All nodded in agreement.

"We have no idea where to look though. Where do we start?" Ibsen asked.

"REPCONN test site" Boone suggested, "If he took Alice, he would have found an area nearby to hide her and keep her from prying eyes."

McNamara looked sceptical, "Even so, that area must have been claimed by the NCR by now. Surely, with all the ghouls gone, your forces would have loved to get their hands on some old-world tech."

Boone shook his head, "No, it's been left untouched since the Courier was there last. The place has a certain…reputation…"

"What does that mean?" asked Ibsen.

"It means it gives people the creeps. I can't blame them, I was in there. It's definitely a good area to hide things…or people you don't want found" Veronica chipped in, shivering at the thought of the place. Boone nodded in agreement.

"Not to mention ghouls still stumble onto the site from time to time. And it's a perfect place to set up traps to keep people out" he added.

After some thought, McNamara decided it would be worth checking out, especially considering it wasn't too far out of their way. They had only managed to track the Legionary a couple hundred meters before they lost his trail.

"Ahem!" Ibsen cleared his throat, trying to get their attention.

"Right, Ibsen, you were about to tell us about the signal. If I'm not mistaken, I believe you are going to suggest we use a signal locator on your PipBoy?"

"Yes!" Ibsen replied enthusiastically, "I have been working on this project for a while back at Hidden Valley, and before we left for the collider I made sure to download the program onto my PipBoy. I'm fairly certain that it'll work…but we've only done the tests under ideal lab conditions. We have a lot of factors that could interfere with the signal outside. But if I can tweak the sensitivity and the gain, I think I should have it accurate to within ten meters"

"But how are you going to track him?!" a frustrated Ramos asked.

"I am going to send a signal ping to the frequency. I assume he had a portable radio device to contact Mr. McBride, so we should be able to track their movement progress on my PipBoy. Don't worry he won't hear it, it'll be in the ultrasonic frequency, beyond human hearing" Ibsen explained confidently, "But…first I need to know the frequency he set on the radio" he looked at Veronica.

"Alright, Ibsen, you go with Veronica to the McBride house and get that frequency. We will go and find Alice McBride. Once you are done meet us at this position. Hopefully we won't be long" McNamara instructed.

'This better work' Boone thought, annoyed that they were wasting time discussing these insignificant details now. Although he felt a great sense of urgency to find Maya as they had already spent a lot of time just trying to determine where the first part of the Legionary's trail lead to, there was the matter of Alice McBride's safety to consider. He owed Dusty that much…

"We should get going, we're wasting time standing here talking" Boone said, trying to keep his annoyance in check.

They all nodded in agreement and picked up the pace, jogging to the REPCONN test site while Veronica and Ibsen made their way back to Novac. Boone grimaced in pain on the way up there as two of his ribs were cracked, and pain shot through him with every inhale, but he kept up with the group. All he could think about on the way up were the various ways he would kill the son of a bitch who kidnapped Maya.

* * *

 _Location: REPCONN Test Site, 21:42 hours_

Getting to the front door of the REPCONN site wasn't a difficult task. They had to disarm a few mines here and there, but nothing they couldn't handle. Inside the site was a different story…

After a decade of not being used or maintained to a degree, the inside of the building was in dire disrepair. There was minimal power, only emergency lights were on just barely. A couple of dead ghouls lay around the reception desk area. Judging by their rate of decomposition, they must have been killed approximately 3-4 days ago.

'Makes sense, that's probably when he set up residence' thought Boone, the very idea of a Legionary being so close to them making him feel sick with rage and murderous thoughts.

"Split up" McNamara whispered. He and Irvine went on the right while Boone and Ramos took the left. It took them a while to search the building, and some areas were booby trapped with mines and tripwires. But after a while, Boone managed to snake his way to the basement. It was dark…too dark to see everything properly, but he could make out a door in front of him. It was locked…

"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath.

"Let me have a look at it" Irvine asked, taking out a bobby pin. It took him less than a minute to fiddle the lock and open the door. Boone was impressed, he was almost as skilled as the Courier.

They walked in and explored the area, until Irvine came across a large hatch door down some stairs and called Boone over.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Don't know, let's find out" he twisted the opening mechanism and the doors slid open with a shriek.

"There! We found her!" Irvine pointed to the corner of the room where Alice McBride was laying unconscious with her arms tied up and handcuffs securing her to some pipework on the wall.

Boone placed two fingers on her neck just underneath her jaw, searching for a heartbeat. He felt it, a weak but steady heartbeat.

"She's alive, let's get her out" he confirmed, and Irvine made quick work freeing Alice from the handcuffs and wrist restraints.

"I don't get it, there's no one here" Irvine commented, looking around suspiciously.

"He left her here to starve to death" Boone stated, "He must have been working on his own. He had already killed Dusty, there was no use for her anymore once he got his information".

"That sick son of a bitch..." Irvine replied, looking down at the unconscious Alice, "We'd better get her help fast".

Boone nodded and helped Irvine pick her up. They found McNamara and jogged back down with Alice in tow to where Veronica and Ibsen were waiting for them.

"Veronica, stay with Alice and get her some help" McNamara panted, "We're going to go and track Maya"

Veronica looked stunned to find out that they were leaving immediately and that she was going to be left alone to help a strange old woman, but she complied. She knew a certain caravan trader who made frequent trips up and down a route close to Novac.

"Ibsen, you got what you needed?" Ramos asked, wiping sweat off his brow with his fingers and flicking it away.

"Yes, everything" he replied absentmindedly, his brow furrowed as he concentrated on the screen on his PipBoy. "I think I got it…sending the signal now…"

After a few seconds, a blip popped up on his PipBoy, indicating a single source on the map with the same frequency.

"Got it! It looks like they're sticking close to Route 95…they're approximately 40 miles south of Cottonwood Cove, which puts them at Palm Gardens. They're close!"

"That's at least a 10-12 hour hike Ibsen, wouldn't call that close" McNamara commented as they started a fast paced walk towards the signal.

"If only we took my Vertibird, we'd be there in no time" Irvine commented.

"We can't spare the fuel if we want to get Maya back to the collider so she can go back home" McNamara reminded him.

"Less talking, more walking" Boone urged them forward, shouldering his rifle to a more comfortable position and walked ahead of the group, pushing aside the pain he was feeling in his entire body. He couldn't help but feel like there was a sort of finality to this mission, as though a cycle was soon to be completed. He didn't know what they were going to be up against or how many Legionaries and other enemies waited for them ahead, but one thing was certain: when he found Maya, he was going to die before he let her be sold into slavery. He was going to fight the Legion, fighting as he wished he would've fought on the day of his wife's death.

 _'Hold on Maya, I'll see you soon…'_

* * *

It was early morning before Maya began to slowly regain consciousness, the world fading in and out every time she started to wake only to shut her eyes and the world out as the bright morning light made her head hurt even more. Her skull felt like she had been clubbed with a baseball bat and like someone had rubbed sand in her eyes. But the harsh jostling and jerking of the cart and grunting of the Brahmin finally managed to rouse her just enough to squint around her, studying the surroundings. She was encircled by wood panels, a couple of crates, a blanket covering her, and the bright blue sky above her.

 _'Where…am I?'_ she thought groggily, wondering what had happened after that explosion. Was she too hurt to treat at the safehouse and needed to be taken to the Followers? She tried to raise her hand to her aching head but something was wrong. Looking down at her hands she noticed that they were tied with frayed rope, as were her ankles. Groggily Maya went over the last memories she had in her mind. Her head was in so much pain it felt as if her skull was throbbing. Then it all came rushing back to her.

"Craig" she gasped, remembering that he was thrown hard against the wall himself. Panic started to grip her as she looked around and couldn't find him. She tried to sit up, but couldn't even manage to prop herself onto her elbow. Her voice sounded oddly raspy and faint, like it wasn't even her own. She realised her throat was almost completely dry and her mouth felt like it was coated in grit. "Craig! Nolan! Anyone?!" she tried calling out desperately, but no use. Her voice was breaking up, but she caught someone's attention.

"Siste!" came a deep unfamiliar male's voice. Maya turned cold and her heart began to beat wildly in her chest. She didn't recognise this voice!

"Where am I?! Where's Boone?!" she demanded as she frantically tried to get up again. She heard footsteps on tarmac, then a stranger with short black hair and dark eyes appeared to her right, looking down at her. He was wearing odd clothing, which looked a mish-mash of sportswear and armour put together to look like a Roman soldier costume. Maya looked up to meet his gaze, but he didn't look concerned or interested in her. Rather, he was smirking unpleasantly, studying her from her legs to her chest…and lingering in between a bit too long. Maya's blood turned cold.

"Well well, you're awake" he said, finally bringing his cold eyes to meet hers.

"Who are you? What have you done with Boone?" Maya demanded.

"I don't care for your tone" his eyes turned to slits as his face contorted in annoyance and he leaned on his elbows on the edge of the cart and pushed her back down. "Your friend is dead. And a woman speaks only when she is spoken to".

"Go fuck yourself!" Maya spat in anger. Her words were met with malicious laughter, and then she saw three other individuals come around behind the first stranger and join in the laughter.

"We should teach this profligate some manners" one of them suggested ominously eyeing Maya up. The way he looked at her, as if she was just a thing to him made her skin crawl. There was no way she could get out of this situation, not without them noticing.

"That's no way for a female to talk" the first stranger stated, chastising her as if she were a child.

"You're the ones wearing skirts" Maya countered boldly. In a split second, she saw a flash of movement as the stranger's palm hit her across the face. A sharp sound like the cracking of a bullwhip echoed around her as his palm connected with her skin, immediately followed by a piercing burn as the strong force knocked her on her side. Her eyes welled up from the pain and shock as she clutched at her face, now red and pulsating. She turned back and saw the stranger's face, lips pursed and eyes beady with anger and resentment.

"Tace!*" he seethed through gritted teeth. Maya recognised the word, he was speaking Latin. She smirked, for only a witless coward would resort to physical brutality when his authority was challenged.

"Omnes crudelitates ex infirmitate*" she replied, quoting the Ancient Roman Philosopher Seneca, smiling as she witnessed the realisation of the words she just uttered dawn on his expression. She hit a nerve there.

One of the others, a larger and more muscular man dressed in more elaborate clothing and his face completely covered up in a sports helmet, goggles, and bandana, strode over to her and grabbed her by the throat, pulling her close to him.

"Be silent, or I will snap your neck" he threatened in a deep growl. Maya was terrified, she dared not say a word unless he made good on his promise; but she stared at the black lenses of his goggles defiantly. After what felt like an eternity, he let go of her, letting her roughly drop back down in the cart and gagged her with a thick piece of cloth.

"Not so talkative now, are you?" one of the others mocked her, a wide smirk on his lips. Maya stared him down, picturing his brains exploding in her mind's eye when Boone and the group finally find her. But to do that, they would need a trail…

 _'I have to find a way to let them know where I am'_ she thought, formulating a plan in her head, _'but how?'_

The larger stranger who had threatened to break her neck came around and pulled a tarp over the top of the cart, tying it down on the sides so that Maya was not visible. Maya's heart sank for a moment, because this way she could not get anyone's attention to help as no one would be able to see her. Then she felt something around her arm. It was her PipBoy! Her heart soared, the baggy hoodie she was wearing must have hidden it from detection. She almost forgot she had it too as she got so used to feeling it around her wrist, like it was just an extension of her.

Luckily she was now concealed and she could get to work with figuring out a way to drop invisible breadcrumbs for her friends to find and follow her. The only question was how? After being jostled in the now stuffy cart trying to think of different ways she could send a message out to her friends without getting detected, she arrived at a decision: Morse code. That would be the simplest and most discrete method of sending a message out, and hopefully people in this century knew how to identify and decipher Morse code.

"Ibsen, you better be listening…" she whispered under her breath as she started tapping out a message on her PipBoy.

 _*Be quiet_

 _*All cruelty springs from weakness_

* * *

"That's unexpected…" Ibsen commented, studying the map on his PipBoy.

"What do you mean, 'unexpected'?" Ramos asked.

"Uh…well…the signal ends there" he pointed to an old world dilapidated gas station. They had arrived at what was once the small town of Cal-Nev-Ari before the war. They were approximately 100 meters away from the source of the signal. They had been jogging almost the entire night, stopping only to catch their breath every couple of miles or so as Boone was still suffering from the injuries he sustained at the safehouse. They were all exhausted and soaked in sweat by this point. It was just gone 9AM, according to Ibsen's PipBoy. Boone felt his heart quicken as he grabbed his rifle and quickly made his way in a crouched stance towards the station.

"Boone! Wait!" McNamara hissed, but Boone didn't stop, "Damn it! Alright, follow him". McNamara, Ibsen, Ramos and Irvine followed behind Boone, weapons at the ready. When they got to the door, Boone was followed in by McNamara and Ramos while Ibsen and Irvine kept watch outside.

The station was small and dark, the windows were boarded up and some were blacked out with paint. Dust hung heavily in the air and filled their lungs when they breathed in, making it a challenge not to cough or sneeze. Boone noticed boot prints on the floor and followed them. Looked to be a group of three…maybe four men. The station was abandoned however.

"Foot prints" McNamara commented pointing to a clear pair in front of them. Boone nodded in acknowledgement. These were slightly different from the rest…

"Must have been carrying something…or someone" Boone replied as he studied them. Ramos made a circle around the room and came back to them.

"Only thing I found was this" he handed Boone a walkie talkie. Boone's heart sank the moment he saw it, knowing this was the end of the trail.

"Do you think they realised we were tracking them?" McNamara asked apprehensively, but Ramos and Boone couldn't tell from the evidence around them.

"Nothing suggests they did. It must have been forgotten" Ramos added.

"Did you find anything else?" McNamara asked, but both Ramos and Boone shook their heads. It looked like the previous occupants were not interested in the contents of the building. They had all found marks in the dusty floor where it looked like five individuals took refuge here for a couple of hours.

"One of the imprints on the floor is significantly smaller and lighter than the others" Boone added looking behind him near the counter where he had found the evidence, "it Maya, I'm sure of it. And it is still a fresh track, I hazard a guess they were here no more than 3 hours ago".

A hint of optimism crossed through McNamara's mind; maybe they would catch up to them soon.

"Alright, considering this area is clear, I advise we take a few minutes' rest before we continue pursuit" McNamara advised.

"With all due respect, Elder, we should push forward" Boone stated flatly, but McNamara could see he was exhausted.

"Boone, we're all tired and could use some rest. We will be more effective after we have some food and water" he looked at his dirty and sweaty bandages. They would certainly have to be changed before they headed back out, "and your bandages need changing".

Boone couldn't argue with him there, so he relented and allowed his comrades to change his blood and sweat soaked bandages and clean the wounds. McNamara administered a small dose of Med-X to Boone to help him with the pain that was setting in and the slight fever he was developing from overexerting himself. Mixing up some healing power into a bottle of purified water, he handed the drink to Boone while Ramos went to talk to Ibsen and Irvine to inform them of their findings. Once Boone finished drinking the water, McNamara got to work on sterilising the wounds again and replacing the bandages on his head, arms and right leg. He could hear Ibsen talking anxiously with Ramos outside.

"We should go, as soon as I'm bandaged up again" Boone sighed, wiping the sweat off his brow and rubbing his tired eyes. McNamara agreed absentmindedly as he poured some healing powder onto his wounds, which were turning into scabs nicely. The good news was there was no sign of infection. The bad news was the group was really struggling to catch up to Maya. They did not sleep at all the entire night, while the individuals they were pursuing had plenty of time to rest and recuperate the energy they had expended. But they did have the element of surprise on their side; the kidnappers did not know that they were being tracked and that soon McNamara and his team would catch up to them.

"Hey, we found something" said Ramos, walking in with Ibsen just behind fiddling with his PipBoy, the sound of radio static following them.

"What is it?" asked Boone, looking at them curiously.

"Listen!" Ibsen instructed holding the PipBoy out and turning up the volume. Very faint pings could be heard under the sound of harsh white noise; but it was there, and there was a pattern. By this point, Ibsen was waiting with baited breath for the realisation to sink in.

"It's Maya!" McNamara exclaimed with surprise, "I don't understand, how did you come across this?"

"I was checking the other frequencies just in case and came across it."

The message that came in was on repeat:

 _'Maya. Alive. Fort Paiute. 0855.'_

Boone's heart raced. That was only 18 miles from their current position, they could catch up to them. Hobbling over to Ibsen, Boone grabbed hold of his PipBoy and studied the Morse code that was coming in. Then an idea crossed his mind and his face lit up for the first time since the day of the explosion.

"Any way we could send a message to her?" he asked keenly. Ibsen nodded and busied himself with a couple of settings before looking back up at Ramos, McNamara and Boone.

"What message should I send?"

"What is her current condition, how many of the enemy are there, and if she could report on any landmarks so we can find her" McNamara instructed and Ibsen got to work sending the message through. He turned back to Boone and helped him sit down on a chair so he could finish cleaning up the wounds. Boone had a slight grin on his face. It would have not long ago annoyed McNamara, but he had the same optimistic look on his face as well.

"Don't celebrate yet, we've still got to find her" he cautioned Boone, who looked a bit more relaxed and positive.

"We will. She's alive and unharmed…that's what's matters" Boone replied as McNamara applied the last bandage on the back of his head where the skin had broken after his head hit the wall in the safehouse.

"We're getting a reply back!" Ibsen exclaimed excitedly, reading out the message to them. "4 men. I'm okay. In Brahmin pulled cart. Old fort ruins. Stopped for rest. Leave in 2 hours."

With a sigh of relief, McNamara instructed that his group get some rest as well considering Maya wasn't far away now and that her kidnappers didn't seem to be in a hurry.

 _'Good, this means that they won't expect to see us coming right behind them'_ he thought confidently.

After they all took some time to eat and recuperate, they picked up their belongings and continued their journey. The only thing that was on everyone's mind was to quickly retrieve Maya and get back to their mission. Their success, or failure, would have lasting repercussions for everyone.


	20. Chapter 21: Rubble Of The Forgotten

**_*** "If you're going through hell, keep going" - Winston Churchill ***_**

It was going to be a hot day. Although it was just gone 0930 and there was a tarp over her, Maya was feeling uncomfortable in the stuffy cart. There was no breeze to help cool her off and sweat was starting to bead on her forehead. It made the freshly formed scab on her head burn and itch. Despite this, she preferred her temporary isolation, especially considering her current company of lewd misogynistic brutes. She could hear them conversing not far from her about their conquests; it made her sick to her stomach.

Suddenly she caught a couple of pings on her PipBoy. Maya had turned the volume to the lowest possible decibel and kept the signal frequency monitor on; it was picking up a message! Studying the frequency and spaces between the peaks, she deciphered the message. It was from McNamara and his group! Her heart soared and Maya had to stifle a cry of relief as she clutched onto her PipBoy, focusing intently on the message coming in. They were asking if she was okay, how many enemy members were present, and if she could report any landmarks.

 _'Okay, let's have a look'_ Maya thought as she slowly inched closer to one of the gaps in the wood panels and lifted a flap on the corner of the tarp so she could get a better look. The area all around them was almost completely barren, no land marks stood out. She moved to the other side, careful not to make much noise and attract unwanted attention, when to her surprise the tarp was quickly untied and flipped open. Maya jerked her arm with the PipBoy behind her and pulled her sleeve over it.

A disgruntled wannabe Roman soldier, his arms covered in blood up to his elbows, dropped a tin plate with what looked like barely cooked, freshly butchered meat in front of her. The stench of drying blood and offal was unbearable, and Maya realised that it was coming off of her captor. With a grunt, he flipped the tarp back over and tied it up on the side again, none the wiser that covert communication was happening right under his nose. Maya recoiled from the bloody contents of her breakfast, pulling a sleeve over her nose wrinkled in disgust to try to filter the stench out. It was no use…

 _'If I get through this, I'm going vegetarian'_ she thought.

One good thing came out of the incident though: she managed to catch a prominent landmark where the enemy were camped. It looked like old stone ruins of what was once a house…or fort. She realised it must be the remains of Fort Paiute from a sign she caught a glimpse of almost an hour ago when they were still on Route 95. Pulling her sleeve back up, she got to work on her message and sent the information back to her friends. About five minutes later she got the reply she was praying for:

 _'Sit tight. On our way.'_

* * *

McNamara and his team made their way down Route 95 towards Maya's location. It was hard going, with Boone injured and exhaustion that entrapped all of them they were making slow progress. Over the course of the day, Boone was administered another two Med-X injections by McNamara so that he could keep up with the group. However, the Elder was worried that Boone might develop an addition to the substance, and they didn't have any medication to help him with that. The good news was that Ramos had found tracks left by a Brahmin and cart, undoubtedly made by the same one that was transporting Maya to God knows where. They trekked over rough barren terrain for roughly two hours before they came upon the ruins, surveying the area for any Legionaries before they went to inspect the fresh campsite.

"They were here less than two hours ago" Boone panted, kneeling next to the fire pit and feeling the residual heat from the rocks surrounding a pile of charred twigs and bones as sweat dripped off his brow and onto the parched earth.

"They've gone up the hills, the tracks lead all the way up" Ramos added between breaths.

"I don't know…how long…how much further I can go" Ibsen panted as he sat on the ancient bricks and proceeded to drink almost all of the water in his canister. Everyone was either seated on the floor or hunched over trying to catch their breath.

McNamara couldn't force them to climb up the steep hills, not when they hadn't had any sleep in over 24 hours and they spent the majority of their waking moments on their feet; running, jogging, and walking when they got too tired. But they needed to get over the higher ground…

"Any…idea where they're headed?" McNamara asked through deep breaths. It was a bit harder to breathe here, especially with the heat beating down on them.

Ramos squinted up the incline, studying the tracks before he answered, "Ahh…Not sure…looks like they're sticking to the Old Government Road…. Ibsen take a look at your map, see if there's anything out there".

Ibsen took out his PipBoy with some effort. He was now sprawled in the shade behind some ruins. "It looks like… Lanfair? It's possible they're headed that way. That's where the road leads to" he answered and let his arm fall to his side, his eyes heavy with fatigue and his clothing drenched in sweat.

"Alright…. Let's keep moving" McNamara urged, but everyone besides him and Ramos were up on their feet again. Boone was trying to get back up from the ground on shaky legs, but they gave way underneath him. Ibsen and Irvine were on their backs in the dirt, exhausted and still trying to catch their breaths.

McNamara's spirits sank; he had pushed his people too hard. Ramos was just barely standing up, and Boone… he had no idea how Boone was still alive, much less trying to get back up on wobbling legs, but he admired and respected his determination. No, he couldn't push them anymore. Leaving them here was also not a solution either. There had to be another way.

"Can we…just rest for a while, Elder? We'll be on our feet again after we have some food…and rest" Ibsen requested, while Irvine stared blankly into the distance.

"Should have taken the bird…" he muttered.

"Alright, we'll rest for a while" McNamara conceded, getting out a tarp from his duffle bag and securing it around some of the ruins so they could have some more shade.

Once the group had eaten, it wasn't long before most of them started to doze off. McNamara could see that Boone was struggling to stay awake, his head nodding every now and again, so he decided to take the first watch while his team rested up.

A cool breeze was coming down from the top of the hills, through their makeshift shelter, drying the sweat off their brows and cooling them down. McNamara tried to stay awake, and for some time he succeeded. Fatigue had caught up to him though, and despite his protests there was no escaping it. His heavy eyelids closed and the Elder fell into a dreamless sleep…

* * *

 _1 hour later_

An odd sound in the distance, carried up by the wind, roused Boone from his slumber. For a moment, he didn't know if he was awake…or still asleep. But the noise was consistent…and it was steadily getting louder.

He jerked himself awake, rousing McNamara in the process.

"W-what? What's wrong?" McNamara stammered groggily, blinking his eyes and rubbing the dust off his eyelashes.

Boone craned his neck, trying to see if he could catch the sound better, "Hmm…I'm not sure". Grabbing his sniper rifle next to him, he used it like a support to help stand himself up, grimacing in pain from the effort of having to move his body. "Someone's coming…"

McNamara took Boone's binoculars and scanned the area around them while Boone picked up his rifle and took aim. A flash of light caught Boone's attention and he pointed McNamara in its direction.

"There it is…what the…what is that?" McNamara looked thoroughly stunned at what he was seeing through the lenses. It appeared to be a motorised vehicle of sorts, but looked more like a steam train with large wheels on land than anything else. It was a little over half the length of a bus with thin rubber wheels at the front but four much wider wheels at the back. Boone shook his head, "Don't know, never seen anything like it before".

As it came into better view coming up the hill towards them, it was certainly an old world tech vehicle, pre fusion core, possibly even pre petrol technology. A cheerful looking man, wearing a cream linen shirt and grey trousers with a weathered bowler hat was waving at them.

' _Maybe this is exactly what we need'_ thought McNamara hopefully.

The man in the vehicle pulled up right next to them, got out and introduced himself.

"Hello folks, the name's Thompson. That's Thompson with a P. What brings you all to the Fort ruins?" he asked. It took Boone and McNamara aback for a moment as they weren't used to wastelanders being so friendly.

"I'm Nolan, this is my friend Craig" McNamara pointed over at Boone. "We're trying to track someone down, but we've been on the road for about 24 hours or so and we needed to stop and get some rest"

Thompson stared at them in disbelief, his mouth slightly agape, "Well…must be some reward on their head for you all to be pursuing at such furious pace!"

"More of a…personal reward…They kidnapped a good friend of ours and are holding her hostage" Boone added, keeping the information short and limited, but it didn't look like Thompson was a Legionary spy.

"I see" he nodded, his expression turning grave, "I know the feeling…too well". He took off his hat and looked down solemnly at it, turning it in his hands as if considering his next words. "Say, I'm not in any hurry. I could give you a lift to wherever it is you need to go".

McNamara and Boone graciously accepted Thompson's offer, woke up the others and all got in the back of the vehicle, which was filled with various supplies that was being pulled behind the vehicle. The ride up was bumpy and crowded, but they were very grateful that they got more time to rest. After a while, the lull of the engine and gentle swaying of the car helped the group fall asleep, except for McNamara who kept a watchful eye on Thompson and made sure they were still following the tracks. Although he had reservations about this method of travel, it was certainly a lot faster and easier than walking. Curiosity got the better of him and he walked over to Thompson. Taking a seat just behind him to his right, McNamara asked the question that was burning in his mind.

"Where…how did you come across this vehicle?" McNamara asked.

"What? This old junker?" Thompson laughed looking over at McNamara, "I found it in what looked like an underground garage. Must have belonged to some rich folk back before the war because there was an entire row of them all sittin' pretty. But I made some handy modifications to it" he replied proudly.

"What kind of modifications?" McNamara queried, resting an elbow on the back of his seat.

"Well, for one I tossed the old steam engine out and replaced it with an electric one. In case I get stuck in a pinch and need to recharge the batteries I've got solar panels packed away in a seat in the back. But I've never needed it, this junker can go over 400 miles without a re-charge" Thompson explained with a smile.

"I'm not going to lie, this is very impressive work" McNamara admitted, "But what are you doing in the middle of a barren wasteland?"

"There are several settlements close by, I make supply runs for them if they need anything. It may look barren, but that's hardly the case. There's also a small NCR base down at the Camino Airstrip. That's where I keep this beast and where my home has been for the past decade" he replied.

Then McNamara realised that Thompson picking them up must have disrupted his delivery route and time schedule, especially if he is making deliveries on behalf of the NCR. "I apologise for having taken you off your course" he said regretfully, but Thompson waved a hand and shook his head.

"No apology required, I am happy to help anyone who needs it. If I can help you get closer to finding your friend, then I've done my job."

For a long while they sat there in silence, with McNamara keeping watch and checking to make sure they were still on the correct path following the tracks. The trail of footprints, Brahmin hooves and cart wheels stuck out like a sore thumb, but it would have been easy to get lost in thought and lose the trail. About half an hour had passed and they had covered approximately 10 miles when the tracks suddenly veered off course and away from the dusty road. The vehicle came to a slow stop and McNamara woke the others. Groggily, Boone made his way to the front of the vehicle with his binoculars ready.

"Did we miss anything?" he asked hoarsely while McNamara handed him a bottle of purified water.

"The tracks go in a different direction. Looks like they were not headed to Lanfair."

Boone nodded and lifted his binoculars to his eyes to survey the land. The trail went off to the left down a slope and onto more flat terrain. Ahead were some large clusters of rocks and boulders. But why would they veer off course and go into what was effectively nowhere, especially when they were only about a mile away from the nearest settlement.

"Hmmm" Boone mused, lowering his binoculars and squinting in the direction he just observed, "We better check it out"

"How far do you think we have left?" Ramos asked putting his boots back on.

"Not far, they were only about 4 hours ahead of us and we made up that time quickly. My estimate is another mile before we find them" he turned to Thompson, "Thank you for assisting us, I will not forget your kindness".

"Don't mention it" Thompson tipped his hat at them.

The group disembarked from the vehicle and thanked Thompson for his assistance before they made their way down the slope and Thompson carried on his original trip to a settlement close to Lanfair.

* * *

After driving into Lanfair and making his delivery, Thompson couldn't shake a feeling that there was something about the group he dropped off not ten minutes ago.

 _'That feller with the red beret is a sniper for the NCR 1st Recon'_ he thought as he recalled the insignia on Boone's beret and the stories that were shared about their successes. Thompson felt like there was something he was missing and wished he could have done more for them, so he decided to call in to Camino airstrip and speak with the C.O. to see if there was anything they could do. Getting back into the driver's seat, he switched his communication radio on and called in.

 _"This is comms officer Ortega, what is your situation?"_ came a reply.

"Ortega, it's Thompson. You fellas ever hear of an NCR Recon by the name of Craig?"

 _"…What's the last name? I'll check in the system."_

Thompson scratched the three-day stubble growing on his jaw, trying to remember if he was given a surname. "Can't recall… He didn't say".

 _"Give me a second"_ came a distracted reply from the comms officer. After about a minute later, a much more enthusiastic Ortega answered Thompson's question, _"You're not going to believe this, but unless there's another Craig in the 1st NCR Recon that we don't know about and haven't registered in the system, you're referring to Craig Boone, the sniper who fought at Hoover Dam and received the Army Distinguished Service Cross! The man's a legend! Why do you ask?"_

Thompson's stomach dropped and he took a second to regain his composure before he radioed back. "Because I just dropped him off with a couple of his buddies 2 miles out of Lanfair"

 _"You_ what _?"_ Ortega's voice gained an octave, _"What's he doing there?!"_

"Tracking someone who kidnapped a friend of his. Found them at the ruined Fort and gave them a ride up the slopes. His buddy said they were chasing this friend for over 24 hours…" Thompson replied.

 _"Jeez... Must be some friend of his to go through all that. Do you think they're in trouble?"_

The thought did cross Thompson's mind, and he figured it wouldn't hurt to send a couple of troops just in case. Even if they didn't need assistance fighting off the kidnappers, they would need some help with transportation, especially considering their current physical condition. "I'm not sure, but it wouldn't hurt to send a couple of your boys up here. Tell them to take the armored truck, just in case…"

 _"Copy that, they will meet you two miles out of Lanfair on Old Government Road at the drop off point. ETA 45 minutes, but I'll tell them to hurry!"_

"Thanks Ortega, I'll make my way there now. Over."

Thompson put away his radio, collected his weapons and drove back as fast as his heavy junker would take him.


	21. Chapter 22: Blood And The Bull

The largest of the enemy grabbed Maya by the back of her neck and dragged her out of the cart, sending her skidding on the gravel and scraping the palms of her hands, arms, and knees. Thin streaks of blood left behind her trail where her skin broke from the intense friction, sending a numbing pain through her body. Luckily, she was far enough away from one of the wall of rocks that surrounded them and didn't hit her head.

"That's enough!" Alerio yelled at Caius, his eyes seething with fury at his subordinate's disobedience. "She is NOT to be harmed, those were the Legate's instructions!"

Caius shrugged and postured confrontationally in front of Alerio, which enraged his superior even further.

"We've been waiting for almost an hour! We have traversed the entire Mojave Wasteland, for what? Where is the Legate? Where is his messenger?" Caius questioned, spreading his broad muscular arms at the desolate expanse they were currently in, "I doubt there even is a Legate left in the Mojave. I think Lanius died at the Dam and you're just using his name to do your own dirty work." Then he turned toward Maya, who was wincing in pain and crawling toward a rock to prop herself up. "I caught her, she belongs to me" he said threateningly.

Maya's heart began to race as she felt the blood recede from her skin…

"I belong to no one" she spat defiantly, despite her fear. She wasn't going to allow them to do or say to her whatever they wanted, not without a fight.

"Be quiet" Caius screamed at her threateningly, making her flinch, and started walking toward her. Before he could get any closer Alerio un-holstered a 9mm pistol he had hidden behind his back and pointed it directly at Caius's head.

"Not…another step" he warned. Then an unexpected movement caught their attention in the corner and everyone drew weapons, turning to face the intruder. It was a Brotherhood of Steel member in full armour. White armor…

"Now, now" an unpleasantly familiar voice came behind the helmet as he spread his hands apart to indicate he wasn't armed, "That is no way to treat a Legionary Centurion". Alerio dropped his weapon immediately and greeted their new guest.

"Ave Niveus, we have been expecting you" he said. Maya detected a hint of annoyance in his body language, despite his voice and face not giving his true feelings away.

Niveus nodded and reached up with both hands to remove his helmet. As his face was revealed Maya had to stifle her dread. It was White, the Elder who had interrogated her and McNamara. Suddenly all of Maya's captors got into formation and saluted White, greeting him with an "Ave" in unison. Alerio walked up to White and started speaking to him away from the group, who were still facing away from Maya.

'This could be my chance' she thought hopefully as she got an idea. If she picked the right time and was quick enough, she could make an escape. It was clear to her that her captors wanted her very much alive, but for what she wasn't sure of yet, and she wasn't about to hang around to find out. As the group were facing away from her, all the attention was directed towards White, leaving Maya a golden opportunity to make a run for it. She slowly inched her way behind the largest enemy soldier, Caius, so that he would block Alerio and White's view of her. Slowly getting up onto her feet so that she didn't make any noise, Maya made a silent and fast dash to the parting in the rocks behind her that was the way out. If she got past the opening unseen, it would buy her more time to escape as it would block her from their sight. Heart pounding between her ribs and air rushing through her hair, Maya made a successful dash through the opening before she heard a yell behind her. She felt the adrenaline pump through her veins, making her legs push her harder and faster away from the group. The yelling stopped and Maya looked behind her to see how many of them were following, but was surprised to see that she wasn't being pursued. Her gait slowed a bit but she still pushed forward.

'Maybe they're too tired to pursue me' Maya thought, turning her attention back straight ahead of her. She was tied up in the back of the cart for the entire journey while they pulled her and expended energy, so it was entirely plausible. Just as she was starting to get her hopes up, she saw a shimmer of light about thirty feet ahead of her. Maya turned to her left to try to avoid it but it was following her, and it was fast! Panting, Maya tried to outrun it, but it was no use. She felt what was like a hand grab the hood of her sweater and pull her back, not hard enough to choke her but it stopped her in her tracks. Maya couldn't explain how this was happening, the only thing that came to her mind was the alien from Predator.

 _'Oh crap they better not be real!'_ she thought terrifyingly as she struggled and wiggled out of her baggy sweater, hearing an annoyed grunt as her sweater hovered for a second in thin air and was then tossed to the side. All Maya heard before she was knocked onto her side on the ground were the fast-paced scraping of heavy footsteps on dry dirt. She was sent skidding and tumbling down a slight slope until she reached more flat terrain and ran out of inertia, landing in a foetal position onto her side. Groaning in pain, she unfurled herself and clutched her bruised and scratched arms. The shimmering figure was still moving toward her; in the blink of an eye the shimmering ceased and a tall, broadly muscular hooded figure was revealed. His face was completely obscured, wrapped in dark rags and reflective goggles over his eyes, a faded and weathered black cloak that ran down to his ankles with a hood over his head, and leather armor over dark grey clothing protecting his chest and calves. Maya gasped, scrambling back on her burning palms and the heels of her feet, but before she could stand herself up the hooded man reached down and pulled her up by her arms. As soon as she was on her feet he let her go and stood in front of her, staring down through his reflective goggles. He must have been over 6'4" tall and didn't look like he broke a sweat at all chasing after her. Maya stood rooted to the ground, knowing that if she ran he would simply catch her again and half expecting him to hit her. But nothing happened, in fact she could hardly hear him breathing as he stood there like a stone. Finally, she decided to break the silence.

"Let me go, I have nothing you want".

The man raised an arm and pointed in the direction leading down the mountain, followed by a deep and steady voice, "No one is stopping you. If you wish to leave, that is the direction you should take."

With that Maya turned the other way and began to run down the rough terrain, a trail of dust following in her wake.

"You'll never make it back alive!" she heard the man yell behind her. Maya slowed down to a jog for a couple hundred feet; then realising he was right she stopped, and just in the nick of time as a few steps in front of her was a steep drop, about four or five stories high, that lead down to sharp jagged rocks. She didn't even see it ahead of her! One misplaced step and she could have fallen to her death. An empty dread filled her chest as she realised where she was. Looking over the horizon there was nothing but wasteland; no signs of civilisation, of people, no shelter, just barren land peppered with shrubbery and rocks. If there was such a thing as hell, this was it for Maya. She couldn't turn back, not with what was waiting behind her, but she also knew that going forwards would be just as perilous. She heard footsteps behind her and turned around to see the tall hooded man walk slowly towards her, behind him some distance away she could see the men that had kidnapped her.

"Your friends are gone, there is no one left to help you get back home" he said, his words confident and unwavering.

"You're lying! You don't know that! They're coming for me, and when they get here…you and your friends will be sorry" Maya spat at him assertively. The others had just caught up behind him and were staying back in case they were needed, except for Caius who was staying close behind.

"There's a probability you are correct, but they will never get here in time. And I am not the one who has lied to you…Maya"

Calling her by her name caught her off-guard. She had never given this information away to him, the only person here who knew her name was…

"White…. you work for White, don't you?" Maya said, keeping an eye out on his friends standing behind him.

"No, White works for me" the figure replied, reaching an arm out for her to take but Maya shook her head and took a couple of steps back, edging closer to the precipice.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled at them, "You said I am free to leave, you lied!"

"I did not lie Maya; I will give you the choice to leave, no one here will stop you", he said, to which some of his subordinates protested to. He silenced them quickly before continuing, "But, before I do, you must hear my words"

Maya hesitated, waiting for them to grab her and put her back in the cart; but nobody moved. The figure's arm was still held out with his hand open, waiting.

 _'This is a trick, they will say anything to get me to come with them'_ Maya thought, looking behind her. She was half a step away from the drop, the vertigo sending a wave of nausea and paralysing fear through her body. But she had no other option, there was no way she could fight her way through a wall of armed enemies, not without help anyway. And in all honesty, she did not know what had happened to Boone… he could be dead, if the others didn't get to him in time. The thought made her eyes well up and she turned her head away so her enemies couldn't see.

"Maya…all you have to do is listen…" came the figures voice again.

She fervently shook her head; Maya had made her decision. There was no chance she was going to trust, much less listen to the people that had hurt her and her friends. "No" she answered as she looked up at her captor and took another step backwards, despite every fibre in her being telling her not to, desperate to live. She felt her stomach drop as she started to fall and air rush from below her. Maya closed her eyes, not wanting her last images of life to be her falling to her death. But before she had even dropped past the precipice she felt a large strong hand grab hold of her arm and pull her back onto land, dropping her shivering several feet from the precipice. Maya's eyes were still firmly shut as she sat on the firm ground, shaking, as she heard someone kneel in front of her. Opening her eyes, she looked up at the figure in front of her.

"Why did you do that?" the hooded figure asked sternly.

"I know you're Legion, you can't be trusted. I'd rather die than help you" Maya answered honestly.

"Stupid woman, you _have_ no choice" Caius laughed just a few steps behind her, "You're going to do as we say".

The hooded figure stood up and faced Caius, "I would watch my next words very carefully if I were you, Caius". He was almost a full head taller than his subordinate, but Caius didn't seem concerned.

Shrugging off the hooded man's warning, Caius walked around him and grabbed Maya by the back of her neck and tried to rip her shirt off. Maya yelled and flailed her fists at him, trying to get away from being further assaulted, but that just angered Caius even further. She heard fabric rip as Caius grabbed a handful of her t-shirt and pull her towards him.

"Let me go!" she screamed as she felt her shirt rip off and saw it get tossed to the side, leaving her only with her bra on on top. Suddenly, Caius was pulled back with such force he was airborne for a second or so, landing onto his backside with a groan only a few paces away from the precipice. The hooded figure walked up to him, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off his feet, tearing the goggles and helmet off of Caius's head as he walked him to the edge. Maya could see his face for the first time since she was captured; the fear and desperation in his eyes as he pleaded for leniency. Nobody dared interrupt the events that followed in fear of being reprimanded as well.

"You dare challenge the orders and word of your Legate?" he asked angrily, watching Caius's eyes bulge as he realised who he had disobeyed.

"You…are…Lanius?" Caius managed to gasp.

The Legate nodded, " _Now_ do you realise the gravity of my warning?" a satisfaction in his voice as Caius nodded. "Good, then you'll have some time to think about your actions on your way down". With a powerful thrust, Lanius threw Caius over the edge, watching him fall to his death on the jagged rocks beneath. Maya covered up her mouth in shock as she heard Caius's scream followed by a sickening thud a few seconds later. Lanius peered over the precipice, satisfied with the result. He turned on his heel and walked over to Maya, who was watching him in horror, picked her up and set her on her feet as she wrapped her arms around her chest.

"Now, will listen to what I have to say?"

* * *

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Ramos asked as he stared down the binoculars behind the group. Boone tilted his rifle in the direction Ramos was referring to, looking down his scope. He was growing impatient; they were several hundred meters away from the enemy camp and so close to their goal, now was not the time to look back.

"What the hell? Are those NCR troops? ...With an armored truck?" McNamara asked taking the binoculars from Ramos, studying the plume of dust following a black armored vehicle in the distance.

"Yes" Boone replied, lowering his rifle. He had to admit, this did offer some relief. "Thompson must have radioed in and asked for them" he added.

McNamara smiled and nodded, "Good, we'll need their help".

"Uh…we've got a problem here…" came Ibsen's voice. He was studying the enemy campsite when a movement cause his eye. "It's Maya! She's made a run for it".

"What?!" Boone asked, turning around and looking down his scope. Surely enough, there she was, sprinting away from the enemy. She was about a hundred feet away before her disappearance was noticed. Boone was tracking their movements, feeling an itch in his trigger finger to wipe them out one by one as they started to jog slowly after her.

"Wait!" McNamara stopped him, placing a hand on the barrel of Boone's rifle.

"What for? We're not going to get another chance at this!" Boone answered angrily.

McNamara pointed him in the direction he was focusing, close to the enemy's shelter. What Boone saw next almost made his heart stop. It was him…White.

"Shit" he hissed as he watched White, in complete white BOS armour, order two other of his soldiers who ran down the slope and made their way behind a rock face.

"Ramos, Irvine, let's go see where they're going" McNamara ordered, un-holstering his weapon, "Boone keep an eye out on the group. If things get out of hand- "

"I know what to do" Boone replied staring steadily through his scope.

Ramos, Irvine and McNamara stalked the enemy BOS soldiers while Ibsen kept an eye out for them and Boone watched the events unfold at the precipice. The NCR soldiers were making good time too, Boone could hear the grumbling of the truck coming nearer.

The enemy group were further away now and their attention was drawn away from their camp, this was the perfect time to move in and create an ambush at their campsite. It provided the perfect cover as it was surrounded by boulders and sarsens, and the NCR troops arrived just in time.

Boone waved them down and the truck pulled up just in front of him. A door next to the driver's seat opened and a soldier walked up to him.

"Oh crap, he wasn't kidding" he said staring up at Boone in awe while Boone glared at him from behind his aviators, unimpressed with the lack of etiquette or respect for the chain of command.

"Private" Boone addressed him, reminding him of his position.

The soldier straightened up and saluted Boone, "Henderson, Sir".

"What are you doing here?"

"We got a call in from Thompson, our supply driver, who said he came across you and mentioned you might need some assistance" Henderson replied.

Boone briefly explained the situation and the troops followed his orders without question. They moved into position at the campsite, surrounded the area, and waited for the enemy to return.

* * *

Having retrieved her sweater and pulling it back on quickly, Maya reluctantly followed Lanius back to the campsite. Their trek was deliberately slow so that Lanius could speak with Maya on the way. He had also ordered his men to go ahead of them so they had some privacy.

"Maya, I have tracked your movements since the day you arrived to this time" he began, "I know your situation, I know you are from another time, brought here against your will. Your presence here has…disturbed certain factions, and awakened others."

"Okay… I'm not sure I follow" Maya answered hesitantly, feeling completely exposed and uncertain of what to expect next.

"You have already met four factions in this time: The Brotherhood of Steel, The Followers of the Apocalypse, the New California Republic, and now Caesar's Legion…although, now we are just Legion" his voice sounded nostalgic and far away as he spoke of his faction.

"From what I've heard, the Legion deserved to be wiped out" Maya replied unemotionally, "They used slaves, treated women as cattle to do with whatever they pleased, they took over other groups, and made everyone conform to their rigid ways"

"And the NCR hasn't?" Lanius asked calmly. Maya was surprised that he didn't react aggressively towards her like his soldiers had.

"The NCR treats everyone equally, they bring order and law to the people, make sure they have food and water and shelter and that they are protected from other aggressive factions"

"And you don't think for a moment that the NCR exploits women? What about the women who work in New Vegas, in Gomorrah, who prostitute themselves daily for the men they work for? The women who find themselves enlisting in the NCR to become soldiers because they have no other choice? Or because their husbands dragged them into serving alongside them".

Maya looked up at him with a puzzled expression, "You think that's in any way the same as you treat _your_ women?! I haven't been here long enough to have a fair debate about this, but I know that having the choice to leave rather than not, being free rather than a slave, is better. Also, at least women outside of the Legion are free to do as they please and aren't worked to death like Brahmin"

Lanius chuckled, "You are correct Maya, you haven't been here long enough to have a fair debate. But if you were, if you took the chance to see life on both sides with eyes unclouded, you would see that the Legion and the NCR are not all different. Each have their strengths and flaws. But, you are missing something... Since your arrival, have you contemplated why the world has been reduced to ruin?"

A silence fell between them for a moment. Truthfully, it was all that was on Maya's mind, and she couldn't understand why humanity didn't attempt to re-build after the war, especially since they had over two centuries to get back to some semblance of where technology was before the war.

"Yes" she answered truthfully, "Every waking moment".

Lanius nodded, pleased with her answer, "And do you know why humanity has been left to rot in the wake of war?"

"Not enough resources?... No unified government to co-ordinate the efforts?" Maya guessed out loud, then looked up suspiciously at Lanius, "Too many violent factions or tribes trying to bring order down…"

"All the points you mentioned are contributing factors. But the real question is _why_?"

Maya shrugged, uncertain of what information she was expected to give. This felt more like being back in school in history class being lectured by the teacher. She was starting to feel irritated.

"What do you want from me?" she asked exasperated, "I doubt you dragged me all the way up here in the middle of nowhere just for a chat about politics and women's rights. What is this really all about?"

Lanius stopped in his tracks and took off his goggles and the rags covering his face. The others ahead seemed to stop too but they didn't dare look behind them. Maya watched curiously as Lanius unravelled the strips of cloth that covered his face and let them fall to the ground in front of him. Then, as the last long strip of cloth was being removed, his skin was revealed; inch by inch, scarred, gnarled tissue. Maya was no stranger to seeing scars and other wounds, but the horror of it and what Lanius must have endured to receive those wounds made her skin crawl as she silently inhaled and held her breath to reign in the shock she felt.

Lanius stood in front of Maya, hood still over his head but his gnarled face laid bare for her to see. He was terrifying both in stature and features, but Maya did not give in to the fear and looked him straight in the eyes. He was still just a man. She could see a hint of doubt in his eyes about the action he had just carried out, determination was there too, and…quite possibly concern about what her reaction will be.

"Wh-…what happened to you?" she asked hesitantly.

Lanius ordered his men to continue forward to the camp. No one protested, but Maya could see that they were grudgingly obeying his orders.

"I… was not always in Caesar's Legion…" he answered, "I was a warrior in the Hidebark tribe in Arizona… My tribe was against Caesar, and for many years we fought off his Legionary soldiers. Each tribe member was responsible for eliminating any Legionary soldiers they saw, and I sought out to kill as many as I could. However, as time went on, more of them would trespass into our territory. Until…our Chieftain relented to their threats and surrendered." Lanius stared into the horizon, as if recollecting his thoughts before he continued. "He…betrayed _everything_ our tribe was…he condemned us all to be slaves to a leader who ruled through brutality."

"What did you do?" Maya asked fascinated.

"I killed him, and all of the warriors. They deserved nothing less for their betrayal" he turned back to face Maya and met her gaze. The intensity of the anger in his eyes made it almost impossible to maintain eye contact. "But I was maimed by those who I once considered my brothers. Caesar was the one who healed me and gave me a purpose after my life as a Hidebark warrior ended. Since then I served him in his army as a Legate, leading his soldiers into battle, conquering other tribes. But…the Legion was never my home, never my family. Since Caesar's death I've had no purpose. I lead the remainder of the Legion survivors away from Mojave and planned my revenge on the NCR. It wasn't until some years after the battle of Hoover Dam that I realised I had been fighting the wrong battle. That is why I brought you here"

Maya was dumbfounded, "I don't understand…"

"You came here from another time. I know you are working on a way to get back home and try to change the future. Your efforts are in vain, you cannot change what is to come"

Maya was getting impatient, "You cannot know that".

"Let me ask you this: how much do you know about the Brotherhood of Steel?" he questioned her.

"I know that their methods are unorthodox, but their intentions overall are good"

"The Brotherhood of Steel was responsible for the destruction of the world. They were born out of the ashes of the Great War, but before they became known throughout as The Brotherhood they were the military of the United States of America and Vault Tech's right hand in the outcome of the war" Lanius explained. His tone was sincere, but Maya couldn't believe it. That would mean that McNamara, Ramos, Ibsen, Irvine…her friends, were part of an organisation that destroyed civilisation.

"You…what you're saying…it's insane! Why would they be part of that? What is Vault-Tech, and what would anyone have to gain from destroying humanity?!" Maya refused to believe him. There was no reason for him to give her this information but to further his agenda.

"I don't expect you to believe me, but the evidence is all around you. You cannot change this future, no one can. It has been strategically planned with incredible precision. And now, you are here, an anomaly and uncertainty in their plans. _You_ can do something about it." He insisted. Maya could sense a feeling of desperation in his voice.

Maya could sense where this was going. "I am not going to help you and your faction!" she answered angrily.

"I am not asking you to help the Legion" he answered, grabbing Maya by the shoulders and pulling her closer so their words were not overheard, "I have no love for them, I am not their servant any longer"

Maya's anger turned to confusion, "Well…what then? Why are you with these people who clearly are Legionaries?"

"I had to use them to get to you. After we are done here, you will no longer be troubled by them…or me. All I ask is that you question everything. And…if you get the chance to travel back, take this with you" he pulled out a black stone with an engraving on it of a bear on it and a feather. Maya studied it in the palm of her hand. The engraving was rough and jagged around the edges, as if it was done in haste. Maya looked up and caught a softness in Lanius's eyes, as though he was caught in a past memory.

"You're asking me to go back and do a favour…for _you_?" Maya whispered incredulously, "You said yourself you've been following my progress, and you want me to drop everything…to sacrifice the mission and prevent the elimination of human civilisation…for a rock?!"

"It's not just a rock" he insisted, looking down at it in Maya's palm "Her name was Quill…she was my mate when I was part of the Hidebarks, but she took her own life less than a year after we were absorbed into the Legion. If you went back to the year 2278, a year after the first battle for the Dam, the year our tribe was destroyed and I became Legate, you could change the outcome. You could save thousands of lives" he closed her fingers around the stone, "I have had many years to reflect on everything that has happened…on the actions that I took. If I had known that she would have taken her own life, I would have done things differently; I would have left Caesar and the Legion behind. Send that message to me, give me the stone and I will know what it means. As far as saving human civilisation, I have already warned you that it is not possible. That path was carved long before you were even born, you cannot change it"

"How do you know that?!"

"White was able to retrieve the information from deep within the Brotherhood of Steel, from the council themselves" Lanius explained, an urgency in his tone, "Use him, get the information out of him. He will give you everything you need to know if you show him this" Lanius took out a large gold coin, one side with a stamped image of Caesar's head wrapped in an olive wreath, the other with what looked like the face of the Roman god of war: Mars. Then the sound of yelling and shots being fired came from up ahead where the camp was.

"Your friends are here for you" he whispered urgently, taking out a device hidden underneath his cloak, "I will leave you now. You have everything you need. Go!" and with a turn of a switch his frame shimmered and Lanius disappeared into the ether.

"Wait!" Maya called out, but it was no use. The yelling and shooting intensified up ahead and Maya felt a sense of urgency to run towards it. White was up there, and Maya needed to make sure he wasn't killed before she got the answers she needed from him. She pocketed the rock and coin, turned on her heel and sprinted for the campsite. Catching sight of some soldiers dressed in similar garb to Boone, taking shelter from gunshots behind a large eight-foot-tall rock, she ran towards them. When she was about fifty feet away from them, one of the soldiers turned around and aimed his rifle at her.

"STOP! DON'T MOVE!" he yelled. Maya stopped in her tracks holding her arms above her head.

"Don't shoot! I'm not with them!" she yelled back and caught sight of a red beret around the corner behind an armored truck. "Boone!" she called out and saw his head pop up as he looked in her direction.

"Maya! Get down!" Boone instructed as a volley of shots whizzed past him and impacted the ground, bringing up plumes of dust and debris.

Maya did as she was advised and hid behind the rock with the soldier who had pointed his rifle at her. "Don't kill White! We need him alive!" she yelled over the noise and screams of wounded Legionaries.

"That's going to be a problem! He ran from the group towards the rocks" Boone yelled back pointing in the direction White ran to as he aimed down his sights and shot down a couple of Legionaries.

Maya was desperate, she needed the information Lanius told her about if she was to have any chance at getting back home. There were only two Legionaries left and they were hunkered down reloading their weapons. Plucking up her courage, Maya made a run for it in the direction Boone had pointed.

"Wait!" Boone hollered, firing a couple more shots to provide cover as he backed away from the fight and sprinted after Maya.

A couple hundred feet away from the campsite in a much rockier environment, Maya heard what sounded like the engines of a Vertibird. Her heart quickened, realising he must be trying to get away. She sprinted, weaving her way around the tall rocks and boulders that covered the area until she got to a clearing. And there she found him, bloody on the ground with McNamara standing over him.

"No! Don't!" Maya screamed, catching McNamara's attention. He looked up at her and waved her to get away, but Maya disregarded it and ran towards him. "You can't kill him! He has information we need" she said as she jogged up to him and pushed the gun away from White, who was on the ground bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the leg and shoulder.

"He has killed hundreds of my brothers and sisters in arms! He doesn't deserve to live" McNamara seethed angrily as Boone caught up behind her.

"I want him dead as much as you McNamara, but if he has information we need, then we need him alive…at least for now" Boone replied.

McNamara lowered his gun, an expression of disgust and disappointment on his face, "Fine…but after that, he answers for his crimes".

Maya knelt next to the bleeding and groaning White. He looked pathetic and helpless now that he was all on his own, but he still looked up at her with that same sneer she saw the first time she met him. But this time, Maya had the upper hand.

"We've got a lot of questions for you White, and you've got a lot to answer for" she smiled, fishing out the coin and watching his sneer fade away as he realised the gravity of the situation he found himself in.

"Time for you to talk…"


	22. Chapter 23: The Two Headed Bear

Apart from White and Alerio, all the Legionaries were eliminated. The NCR soldiers worked efficiently to clear the area and do a final inspection round before packing everything up and moving out. Since Boone was the highest ranking officer in the group, he organised and ordered the team on the ground, which was comprised by the NCR soldiers who had provided assistance, to return to their base at the Camino Airstrip, while Boone, Maya, McNamara, Ibsen, Ramos and Irvine flew over to Camp McCarren with Alerio and White in tow for questioning in the Vertibird they confiscated. Needless to say, Irvine was ecstatic about their new ride and not having to walk all the way back to New Vegas, which took them approximately one hour. Boone had radioed in to speak with Colonel Hsu and inform him of their arrival with White, Alerio, and the Hidden Valley Brotherhood of Steel survivors.

On landing, the group were met by medics, troopers who took the hostages to the interrogation rooms, and Col. Hsu himself.

"Welcome back to Camp McCarren, First Recon Boone. We are glad to receive you. Please, allow us to take you all to our doctors to examine and treat you." He motioned to a couple of his troops and medics to help them disembark off the vertibird.

"Thank you, Colonel." Boone welcomed the assistance. After the events at the safehouse and traversing the wasteland to find Maya, his body was so sore and bruised that he could barely move and his feet covered in blisters, so a wheelchair had to be brought out for him. He was wheeled away from the others to the doctors with haste while the others in the group were walked inside the terminal to be examined.

Although the airport was weathered, dusty, and in need of some basic maintenance, the condition was overall much better than anything Maya had seen since she arrived in this timeline. Maya was taken to see doctor Thomas Hildern along with the others while Boone was taken to an intensive care unit with doctor Williams. Before she was escorted inside she saw a couple of other soldiers, all wearing the same red berets with the insignias, follow Boone into the separate treatment room. No doubt concerned comrades in arms.

"Right, what do we have here?" A gruff male voice came from inside the room as Maya was ushered in. The doctor began examining each of them one by one. McNamara seemed to be the worst of their group with badly blistered feet from the long trek through the Mojave, however apart from some dehydration and malnourishment the group was no worse for wear. Then it came Maya's turn to get checked.

"Name?" The doctor asked.

"Maya"

"Age?"

This question was a bit tricky. ' _Do I say 29 or 303?_ '

"Age?" The doctor repeated impatiently.

"Uhh, 29" she answered, watching the doctor's eyebrow raise as he took her blood pressure, a blood sample, and carried out some sort of scan using a medical device that had many arms.

"Hmmm...fascinating..." He said intrigued.

Maya stared at him waiting for some sort of response, to elaborate on what was so...fascinating. But when he said nothing she grew impatient. "What is?"

The doctor took another look at his scans and her preliminary blood analysis, "Your cells...are practically untouched by radiation damage. Either you were born and lived in an extremely well shielded environment, or...you somehow skipped the Great War when the bombs were dropped"

Maya felt as if she was found out and her mind was racing, trying to find a lie that would be suitable enough; but she couldn't think of anything. The doctor turned around and faced her, making her feel like a deer in headlights.

Suddenly he burst out laughing. Maya giggled nervously, shifting he gaze over at her friends that looked equally confused and nervous, except for McNamara who maintained his composure.

"Oh don't worry, you're not the first vault dweller I've come across".

"I bet not" McNamara piped up, a grin on his face.

"Of course not, we've got plenty of Vaults in the Mojave, some which we don't even know about yet. People pop out of them every so often", the doctor replied matter-of-factly. Intrigued, he turned back to Maya, "Which Vault did you emerge from? Must have been recent".

"76" McNamara answered.

The doctor looked puzzled for a moment then shook his head, "Never heard of it".

"It's not from around here" McNamara added. Maya could almost see the relief flowing through McNamara.

Taking his nitrile gloves off the doctor proclaimed them all fit and healthy, especially Maya. He gave them some electrolytes and organised temporary accommodations to be made for them in the base. They were given three tents in front of the airport terminal. Ibsen was sharing a tent with Ramos and McNamara with Irvine, while Maya had a tent to herself. All of their things were also brought into the tents and they had some supplies and food brought to them as well.

Taking some time to appreciate a little privacy, Maya closed the tent flap and sat on the wire sprung mattress, listening to the early evening bustle in the base. Pulling up her backpack onto the bed, she rummaged through it to see if she could find a shirt to wear. It was unbearably hot and her sweater was dirty with sweat and dust. Her hand came across fabric and she grabbed it, pulling it out. It was one of Boone's white-ish t-shirts. She looked down at her PipBoy, which registered the time as 18:30. They had arrived a little over four hours ago and it took the doctor roughly two hours to look over them, provide diagnoses and treat them. But Boone's check up was taking longer than expected, and she was getting worried. Opening the flap back again she peered around and tried to see if any red berets popped up. Nothing...

With a sigh she went back inside and changed, putting on the t-shirt and tossing her sweater on the floor. Maya was exhausted and all she wanted to do was lie down and sleep, but her mind wouldn't stop going over the events that had just happened. It felt odd: just that morning she was thinking that she might never see her friends again...she didn't know if they were killed by the Legion soldiers, and at one point she was even willing to end her life. And now...now she was safe in an NCR base, unharmed for the most part, but with a considerable amount of information to take into account now with regards to her mission to change the future. There were a lot of questions burning in her mind, especially about the Brotherhood, that needed answering. Part of Maya's mind was urging her to forget what Lanius had told her, that he only said those things to try to steer her off course. But the other part was reminding her of how little she knew about McNamara and his faction. There as also a thing to be said about that old saying that history is written by the victors...

She wanted desperately to speak to Boone about this before bringing it up with McNamara. There was no one else who was around that she could talk to about this either. And now she couldn't get Lanius's words out of her head.

 _"Let me ask you this: how much do you know about the Brotherhood of Steel?"_ His voice echoed in her mind.

"Not much I suppose..." Maya whispered, running her fingers through her hair and staring blankly at the wall, so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear Ramos walk in, making her jump.

"Woah, sorry I startled you" he said holding up both hands, "It's just me. Want to go get something to eat? After today we're all a bit starved" he grinned.

"Yeah...sure" Maya replied a bit guardedly and walked out with him to meet the others. About fifty feet away from their accommodation was a tent with a long dining table. The others were already all seated at the table with plates full of food; everyone except for Boone. When Maya and Ramos arrived they all greeted her with a cheer and joked about the Vault dweller coming by to join them for dinner. Maya smiled at their jokes but underneath it all she wasn't feeling like there was much to be happy about. McNamara stood up a bit shakily and pulled a chair up for her.

"You shouldn't be on your feet Nolan, but...thank you" she said as he waved Ibsen to pour them a Nuka Cola and some food on their plates.

"Oh, don't worry" McNamara grunted as he sat back down, "I'm already on the mend, and now knowing that you are alright and unharmed...well, that's the best outcome I could ever have hoped for. Especially knowing what the Legion are like towards women".

"We got them all in the end though" Ramos exhaled as he sat down next to Maya.

"Anyone hear about how Boone's doing yet?" Maya asked, looking around at everyone. They all shook their heads.

"Not yet, but I just saw his First Recon buddies walk back to their tent" Ibsen answered pointing in the direction where their accommodations were. Maya turned around and saw one of them walk into the tent. Much to the dissatisfaction of her friends, she got up and jogged over to them before they closed the flap.

"Excuse me" she called out, "Do you know how Craig is doing?"

A dark haired man with a beard and a scowl on his face turned around to face her. "Yeah, who wants to know?"

His rudeness surprised her so much that she was taken aback for a second before replying, "Maya, I'm his friend". His expression softened immediately once he heard her name.

"You're Maya? I apologise for my curtness. I'm Sergeant Bitter Root. This is my team, 10 of Spades, Corporal Betsy, Corporal Sterling, and our leader Lieutenant Gorobets will be making his way back shortly" he pointed out to the members in the tent, who all nodded at Maya as they were introduced by rank and name.

"How is he?" Maya asked worried.

"He's alright, just resting. The doctor wants to keep him in tonight to keep an eye on him. He has two broken ribs, lacerations on his back, legs, and arms, and a minor concussion" Sgt. Bitter Root explained. Upon seeing the worry on Maya's face he proceeded to try to re-assure her that Boone really was alright, just needed rest.

"Thank you for the information...I was afraid that there were complications" she said relieved.

"Don't fret, he'll be back to his old self in no time. Especially if he's got a gal like you waiting for him. I know I would" Corporal Betsy said with a wink, making Maya blush. She wanted to say that she and Boone were just friends, but she didn't want to risk revealing that information to Betsy...in case she got any ideas.

Maya thanked all of them and made her way back to the table with the others.

"Well, what news do you bring?" McNamara asked, and Maya gave them all the information on Boone's current condition while they ate. They were all so hungry that they barely spoke and had second helpings. After their dinner they were all so full that if they had gone to bed at that moment they could easily pass out for a full 12 hours. Ibsen and Irvine excused themselves to go and explore the base a bit before they retired for the evening, and Irvine was especially intrigued to see the well preserved aircraft. McNamara and Ramos stayed behind and kept Maya company. There was also the matter of her kidnapping to discuss.

"Maya...do you remember what happened that day at the safehouse?" McNamara asked gently, not wanting to cause Maya any more distress by bringing up unsettling memories.

Taking a moment to organise her thoughts, Maya began at the beginning. She explained that day in the safehouse, hearing someone outside the door of the safehouse and the explosion that followed. "Then nothing, darkness. I must have been knocked out cold because the next memory I had was waking up in the back of a cart being pulled by Brahmin" Maya answered, but before she could continue a man wearing a red beret walked up to them.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, are you Maya?" He asked.

"Yes. Are you Lt. Gorobets?"

"Yes ma'am, how did you know?" Gorobets asked.

Maya pointed at the rank indicated on his uniform, "And you're the only other First Recon sniper I have yet to meet at the base".

"Right. You'll be pleased to know that Boone is doing alright. He has asked for you though. If you are ready, follow me and I will escort you to the infirmary" he nodded towards the terminal.

Maya promised to continue the conversation with McNamara at a later time and followed Gorobets inside.

"He's spoken very highly of you Maya" Gorobets said as they walked through the entrance.

Maya looked up at him, wondering how much information Boone had given them about her, "Really?" She asked.

"Yes. In fact as soon as the doctor mentioned he could have visitors he asked for you. I imagine he was a bit disappointed when the first visitors he got were my motley crew" he laughed, taking off his beret and scratching the back of his head. "I imagine he's already going stir crazy and bothering the doctors about when he can leave".

Smiling, Maya nodded, "Sounds like something he would do I guess".

They wound a corner and Gorobets stopped just outisde the doorway to a large room with an infirmary sign at the top. He knocked on the door and poked his head in, "Got a visitor for you Boone, you decent?" He laughed. A familiar voice groaned in the corner of the room and Gorobets smiled, nodding at Maya to enter freely.

Boone was resting on a clean infirmary bed propped up with some pillows and taking sips of some clean water. His head was bandaged up as were his arms and Maya could see bandages around his chest going down his waist. His beret and sunglasses were resting on the bedside table next to him. Maya pulled up a chair and sat down beside Boone.

"How you doing?" She smiled, "Look at you, you're all wrapped up. Some more bandages and you could go trick or treating as a Mummy"

"Hah, ah..." He wrapped an arm around his side, "Sorry, hurts to laugh".

Maya shook her head, "No it's my fault, I shouldn't have made you laugh". Then a grin crept up on her face, "I didn't even know you could laugh. The doctor must have upgraded your software" she joked, eliciting a chuckle from Boone.

"Haha, ah ow..."

"Sorry" Maya winced seeing his pained expression as Boone cradled his side, "no more jokes, I promise".

Boone took one of Maya's hands in his own and squeezed gently, "Never say sorry to me, you could never hurt me". Maya's smile broadened and she squeezed his hand back.

Seeing the worry in her eyes and the tears that were threatening to make an appearance touched him. "Hey, don't worry. I'm alive, just a bit bruised but not broken" he reassured her, "And now that I know you are okay, I feel a hundred percent better"

Maya chuckled, "Not quite there yet" she said as she reached over to the bedside table, picked up and dusted his beret, and placed it on his head. "There. A hundred percent. Plus some bandages".

Boone grinned widely for the first time in over a decade and felt a warmth spread through him, like the time he first saw Carla at the strip. Seeing the effect it had on Maya made him want this feeling to never leave him. They carried on chatting and joking for about an hour until the doctor practically kicked Maya out.

"Okay, out! If you want him to be at a hundred percent, you need to let him get some sleep" the doctor said unamused. No doubt she overheard part of their conversation.

Maya wished Boone a good night and promised to visit him in the morning after breakfast. Walking out of the infirmary she tried to find her way back outside but unfortunately wasn't paying much attention to the route Gorobets had taken her through and got lost. Thankfully she came across a familiar face walking into an office.

"Colonel Hsu" she called out before he walked in. He looked slightly taken aback but pleased to see her.

"Good evening Maya. I would have thought that you would be resting with the rest of the group by now. I take it you've been to see Lt. Boone" he said.

"Yes, I was just kicked out by the doctor" Maya answered, "I didn't know Craig was a Lieutenant".

"He got the promotion after the battle at Hoover Dam" Col. Hsu added, "I'm actually glad to see you here. I've been meaning to talk to you but wanted to leave it until you've had some rest."

"Is everything alright?" She asked concerned.

Hsu nodded and smiled to re-assure her, "Yes, all is well. It is more of a matter of the Legionary prisoners you brought back. Lt. Boyd hasn't had any luck interrogating them, and one of them who goes by Niveus has specifically requested to talk to you. Only you." Hsu added with some concern.

Although Maya knew that she would have to face White inevitably, she was hoping to have some time to recuperate her energy before she delved into what was undoubtedly going to be the most stressful and uncomfortable conversation she was ever going to have.

"Alright...I suppose it's better to get this thing over with quickly" she exhaled, rubbing the back of her aching neck.

Hsu nodded in agreement and lead her up to the first floor where Lt. Boyd was standing outside the door to the interrogation room smoking a cigarette and looking rather annoyed

"Is this her?" She pointed at Maya.

"Yes, this is Maya Lieutenant. Have the prisoners revealed any information?"

Boyd shook her head, "Not unless you count the misogynistic insults they've thrown at me, no". She studied Maya, squinting at her and placed a hand on her hip as she leaned her weight on one leg, "I wonder why they're so adamant to speak with you".

"Guess we'll both find out as soon as this is over" Maya shrugged, exhausted.

"Alright, he's asked just for you. No one else is in there and the prisoners are secured, but if things get out of hand just yell and we'll come running" she said as she put out her cigarette on the floor.

The door screeched open and Maya walked into the room. On her left was a wall of lockers and straight ahead was another room with a partial glass wall where White and Alerio were restrained onto steel chairs that were nailed into the concrete floor. They both looked worn and defeated, roughly bandaged up, but Maya knew this wasn't going to be that easy. As the door closed behind her, Maya felt a chill run up her spine and a dread fill her stomach. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the glass and tapped it.

"You wanted to talk... I'm here" she said with as much confidence she could muster.

White looked up at her and the same sneer he gave her the first time she saw him crept up on his pale gaunt face.

"You're going to want to sit down"…


	23. Chapter 24: Industrial De-Evolution

Maya pulled up a chair and sat in front of the glass wall, watching White closely.

"What are you doing?" Alerio seethed at White, "If you tell her anything, I'll make sure to it that the Legion hunts you down like a traitorous dog"

White seemed amused and raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think you'll get a chance to warn them?"

Then a deadly silence spread between them as they locked eyes, both waiting for the other to relent. It was Alerio who gave in and shifted his gaze away, turning to Maya.

"It doesn't matter what he says. The Legion already knows about _you_ Maya, I made sure to send a message to them before we made our way to the pickup point" he sneered, "They'll catch up to you soon enough, you'll never be safe".

"Are you done?" White asked almost amused at Alerio's outburst. When his question was met by silence, he carried on. "Where were we?"

"You were about to tell me everything" Maya replied keeping her gaze on White steady and trying not to reveal any emotions.

"Well... where to start?" He mused playfully. White's attitude was becoming irksome and Maya was losing her patience.

"The beginning"…

* * *

 ** _2277 The first battle of Hoover Dam_**

 _"We should retreat!" yelled Niveus, crouching behind a pile of cement and rebar rubble as bullets of various calibers whizzed and ricocheted past him in what was once Boulder City, clutching at a blood-stained assault rifle he stole from a dying NCR soldier that one of his comrades had eviscerated. Dust had already caked the blood. The noise all around them was almost deafening. And Niveus's rifle was out of ammo._

 _His superior turned to him, giving him a disgusted look as though he had just stepped in something unpleasant. "We hold this position, Legionary! If you run, I'll shoot you myself" and he turned his attention back to the NCR troops that were advancing on their position, gunning down two…three…six…but they kept coming._

 _"I'm out!" he yelled in frustration as his weapon ran out of ammunition, his brow drenched in sweat. Panting, he turned to Niveus, "Give me your weapon!"_

 _Niveus shook his head, "It's empty" he answered._

 _"Damn it…" a vein was bulging in his superior's neck. Niveus watched him, terrified, as his superior bowed his head and stared at the ground wide eyed as he pulled out his machete from his belt._

 _"What are you doing?" Niveus asked hesitantly. But somehow…he knew what was about to happen as his superior faced him._

 _"Go back to the main group. Tell them the line has fallen" he said with look of desperate rage. Without warning he lifted the machete into an attack position and ran out in front of the NCR troops, a volley of bullets greeting him not even ten paces away from his nearest attacker, spraying the rubble they had been taking cover behind red with blood._

 _Niveus turned cold. He wanted to surrender, but that was out of the question. He knew the Legate was watching…_

 _Dropping the rifle at his feet, he quickly made his way back to the group, darting between rubble to avoid more bullets._

 _Sure enough, 500 meters away the Legate was overlooking the massacre with his binoculars. He was a stern man with a deep commanding voice, dark brown hair and blue eyes, wearing dark worn jeans, a black vest with the words SWAT embroidered, holding a 0.45 Auto pistol by his side. When he spoke, you listened. But today, Joshua Graham was at a loss for words._

 _He watched as a panting Legionary came running up to him. Then, an idea crossed his mind. It might just be his saving grace…_

 _"You" he pointed his pistol at Niveus, who stopped immediately, holding his hands above his head and shivering in terror, "I have a job for you"._

 _They made their way inside one of the destroyed buildings, taking cover from enemy fire. Niveus was greeted by about a dozen Legionary soldiers, some injured and resting on the floor applying healing powder to their wounds, others reloading their weapons. One of the Legionary Recruit's was badly injured, laying down on a makeshift stretcher and bleeding profusely, desperately clutching onto his comrade's arm. Niveus could hear him whispering, pleading… "Please don't leave me…please don't leave me". It made his blood run cold._

 _"Take that off" the Legate motioned at his clothing, but Niveus simply stood there, confused, in front of his entire group. Upon seeing his confusion, Legate Graham lost his temper. "I said remove your armor and clothing, Legionary! You're not one of us anymore"._

 _Frantically Niveus did what he was told, his heart beating hard in his chest, not knowing what was going on as he got undressed._

 _The Legate tossed some profligate clothing at him. It hit him in the face and he fumbled through them. "What's going on? Why am I to wear these…clothes?" he looked down at them with disdain. They stood for everything he was against._

 _"Put them on" insisted Legate Graham with a scowl._

 _With shaky hands, Niveus did as he was told. As he started putting on the profligate clothing he felt a wave of disgust at himself…but he couldn't disobey a direct order from the Legate._

 _"Good" the Legate said as he looked Niveus up and down, "No one will suspect you"_

 _"Legate, what is going on?" Niveus asked confused, not wanting to offend his superior but also not able to hold back his curiosity._

 _"I am sending you on a vital mission" the Legate began, "Your new purpose is to embed yourself into the enemy ranks, collect intelligence about the enemy and relay that information back to Caesar"._

 _"You…want me to infiltrate the NCR?" Niveus asked, looking at Graham wide eyed._

 _"Yes, you will also be assisted by another Legionary by the name of Alerio. I believe you two had met."_

 _Niveus tried to recollect a faint memory of the name. He recalled an event where a man by that same name was promoted to Veteran by Caesar himself, and nodded._

 _"Good, then you'll recognize him when you see him. He is also disguised as a profligate and can be found in New Vegas. He will approach you seven days from now, therefore once we're gone you must make your way there. You will go to Gomorrah on the seventh day at noon in the gardens in the back and throw this coin into the fountain" Graham handed him a gold coin with Caesar's likeness stamped into it on both sides._

 _Niveus looked at it in the palm of his hand, "But Legate, they would be suspicious about my presence. There are no profligates here…"._

 _Graham pulled a 10mm pistol behind him that was hidden by his vest, "About that…". Before Niveus could react, Graham turned around to the two most wounded Legionaries and shot them in the head, killing them instantly. The blatant act of murder shocked the rest; they retreated behind any obstacle they could find, hoping to avoid becoming the next victims. Graham placed the smoking gun into Niveus's hands, slapping his cheek to rouse him from the shock of what just happened._

 _"You were hiding in one of the least damaged buildings and came out looking for your friends, but you came across us," Graham's voice was steady as he told the story Niveus would repeat to the NCR that were hot on their tail, "You killed these Legionaries in self-defense, and the rest of them ran." He finished the story and looked sternly at Niveus, who was staring at his Legate wide eyed and trembling. "You are no longer Niveus. Your name is White. You belong to no faction. Do you understand?" Graham's icy eyes met Niveus's, who could only nod in obedience to his superior._

 _Without a word, the rest of the Legionaries hurriedly departed, leaving Niveus standing awkwardly between two dead Legionaries._

 _"Stop! Hands in the air!" came a woman's voice at his back, startling him. He dropped the gun and complied, slowly lifting his hands above his head._

 _"Don't shoot…they…they tried to kill me…it was self-defense, they came out of nowhere…I was looking for my friends but…"_

 _"Stand down" the same voice commanded her troops, "Where did they go citizen?" she asked. Niveus pointed to the opposite direction his comrades had left. She motioned to her troops and they ran in that direction._

 _"What's your name citizen?"_

 _Niveus had to pause for a second, remembering that he could not reveal his true name, "…White…my name is White"._

 _"Just…White?" she asked with one eyebrow raised._

 _He quickly tried to think of a first name, something common and not suspicious, but the only names that were coming to him were typical Legionary ones. 'Damn it, think.." he told himself. Remembering a crucifixion he was present at of a profligate when he was just a child, a name stuck out at him…_

 _"Logan…." He replied, lowering his hands slowly back down by his side and turning to face her, "My name's Logan White, and I want to join the NCR"_

* * *

 ** _2279_**

 _Tensions between the NCR and Caesar's Legion continue to increase. Niveus prided himself in his hand at helping the tensions rise by leaking secret information to the Legion with the help of his contact, Alerio. He may wear the uniform of the NCR faction, act and speak as one, but in his heart he was Legion. Two years had gone by since the event at Boulder City where his life was re-purposed to serve as a spy. His location at New Vegas meant he was close to Camp McCarran and Alerio. Getting sensitive information from the NCR was complicated in the beginning, but soon he made acquaintances with certain individuals, gained their trust and with that came access to secret mission information, updates on patrol movements, safehouses, and specific personnel information. He had also just found some very interesting information about certain dust storm anomalies that were reported by troops patrolling an area called Hidden Valley. Having accumulated some leave, he decided to take a week and go exploring. He was adamant to find something, anything that could give the Legion an edge over the NCR._

 ** _2 days later:_**

 _White arrived at Hidden Valley on the evening of the second day of his leave. If he wanted to find anything, he had to hurry. Making quick work setting up his tent inside the fenced area, he began his search._

 _As dawn was approaching, White was nowhere close to finding any evidence of the strange anomalies he had read in the reports, apart from what looked like two old world bunkers with heavy blast proof doors that were sealed. If there was anything in there, he wasn't getting to it. At least, not without setting off a mini nuke._

 _Tossing his equipment on the ground next to his tent, he sat on his sleeping bag and rummaged for some food in his pack. It was over 24 hours since he last ate or slept and he was starving. As he ate he went over everything of interest that he found in the area in his mind. There was a hollow in a rock in the middle of the enclosure, but there was nothing in it. Even after an hour of searching around it, White came up empty. But that bunker was bugging him… He wanted to get inside._

 _That evening White was too tired to carry on working. After his brief rest in the afternoon he went back to the bunker and for over 5 hours tried to get the door to open, but it wouldn't budge. He lay in his sleeping bag and was kicking himself for squandering so much time on something that was clearly just a spook story. But before he could get to sleep the air in the enclosure started to stir, and within about a minute a strong sandstorm had formed. White desperately covered his eyes to protect them from the coarse sand. His tent was blown away and most of his things were getting scattered by the wind. Then, out of nowhere, a large silhouette of a figure appeared in front of him and knocked him to the ground, sending him skidding on the rough sand and gravel. White gasped as he hit the ground and scrambled for his gun, but he was too slow. The second punch knocked him out. Fading in and out of consciousness, he caught glimpses of other large silhouettes that looked like robots…no…they were people…they were the Brotherhood of Steel. Before he could say anything, his eyes grew heavy and he fell into a deep sleep._

 ** _10 hours later_**

 _When White eventually woke up with a wracking headache, he found himself in a concrete room with no windows and no recollection of how he got there._

 _"Hello?!" he yelled, but that only made his head hurt more. Wincing from the pain, he tried to sit himself up but couldn't move his arms or legs past a certain distance. He looked down and saw wrist and ankle restraints securing him to the bed. "Hey! Let me go!" he yelled, realizing he was in trouble._

 _A loud screech and crank emanated behind him and White desperately craned his neck to see what was going on. A heavy airtight door was opening, and through it stepped a man in dark overalls and an ankle length coat draped over his shoulders, the Brotherhood of Steel emblem of the sword with wings behind it and a circle that encapsulated three gears. The man had white hair and striking grey green eyes carrying an unamused expression on his face. He walked up to White and stood at the foot of the bed, his eyes not breaking contact with White's._

 _"You're the Brotherhood, aren't you?" White asked, "Why am I here?"_

 _"I was just about to ask you that same question: why_ are _you here? Did the NCR send you?"_

 _White shook his head vigorously, "No, they don't even know I'm here"._

 _The man turned his gaze to his colleague standing in the doorway and nodded. White heard footsteps approach him and a balding man with glasses dressed in a Scribe's uniform appeared to his side, holding a syringe containing a clear liquid. Before White could even ask what it was, he was injected._

 _It wasn't long before White started feeling the effects. The man wearing the long coat…the Elder… was persistent. He kept asking him questions, and with each passing minute White felt more inclined to answer them, and every time he tried to withhold information he was being asked it felt as if it was getting harder to resist. Before the hour was up he had divulged almost all the information that was asked of him. They knew he was Legionary…_

 _When the questioning was over, an odd look crossed the Elder's face, as though he was disgusted at White and pitied him at the same time._

 _"What did you give me?" White asked, his eyes turning to the empty syringe lying on the medical trolley. He was drenched in sweat, pale, and feeling a bit shaky._

 _"Sodium thiopental" the Scribe answered, "Better known as truth serum"._

 _White laughed, "So…what are you going to do now? Am I to be executed?" he grinned, as if daring them._

 _The Elder heaved a long sigh before answering, "…No…. Not today. Despite my recommendations to continue your interrogation, you are to be handed over to the council". He walked right next to White's bed and leaned down to make sure his next words would be heard by him only, "But make no mistake, you screw up, bring harm to me and mine, and I'll execute you myself". The Elder straightened back up again, gave White a slight smile and walked out. That was the last time White saw Elder McNamara face to face... At least the last time in over a decade._

* * *

 ** _2287 (8 years later)_**

 _Since that fateful day at Hidden Valley, White had served the Brotherhood of Steel in the Capitol Wasteland, but not before he spent the better part of three arduous years being tested, examined, and his every word and action analysed for any hints of betrayal. Three years before he was allowed anywhere near any significant tech, three years before he had proven his loyalty to the Brotherhood by helping save a small group of Knights he was with during an expedition to an old world high tech centre and ambushed by sentry robots. They had discovered a small group of Enclave soldiers who were guarding technology underneath the site. Two Knights were instantly killed in the attack, but White managed to pull the third to safety behind some rubble and call in backup. In the eyes of the Brotherhood Council, this ultimately proved his worth to them, and he was given the rank of Knight with full privileges that came with the title and the promise of advancement up the ranks should his performance be satisfactory. Well, eight years had passed, and White was now Paladin with prospects of becoming Elder within a few years' time._

 _White was in his quarters in the Citadel, writing up the latest mission progress report when his intercom system was initiated and his superior's voice filled the room._

 _"Paladin White, report to the landing bay"._

 _The words took him by surprise, but he acknowledged the order and made his way to the bay. A Vertibird already prepped for flight was waiting for him._

 _"What's going on Sir?" he yelled over the sound of the propellers, but was only motioned to take a seat in the aircraft. He complied, securing himself in a seat just behind the pilot and facing his superior. "Where are we going?"_

 _"The less you know, the better" was his superior response. White obeyed and kept quiet the entire half hour journey to their destination. They landed approximately two miles outside of the White House. As soon as they disembarked, his superior walked up to him holding a black sack. White eyed it suspiciously._

 _"I'm going to have to put this over your head White. From here on out, the powers that be would prefer you didn't know the way to their front door" he said. White allowed for them to obscure his vision and guide him through the Capitol. At first, he tried to keep up with where he was being led, but after walking for over 45 minutes he gave up. He was sure that three or four times they were going around in a circle._

 _After going down a couple of flights of stairs, the black hood was taken off White's head. He blinked a couple of times getting used to the fluorescent lights above him. It appeared they were in an abandoned underground train station. Apart from the dust and dirt it looked relatively unscathed, but certain areas looked unfinished as though it was a new build before the Great War began. And then White heard something no human being in that area had heard in a long time: the sound of a train approaching._

 _White followed the group the edge of the platform and waited as the train pulled up, the doors aligning perfectly right in front of them and a hiss as they slid open smoothly, allowing them to board. White noticed that this was no ordinary train. For one, there were no wheels! Instead, the train seemed to levitate on the tracks._

 _It was a beautiful train. Although the station was in somewhat of a disarray, the train was the exact opposite. The interior was spotless, the seats like brand new, there were no sections inside, instead it looked like a long pristine tube with seats. The white floor had a light grey honeycomb pattern that was so polished to perfection that White regretted walking in wearing his dusty Paladin jumpsuit and boots. The others didn't seem as shocked or impressed as he was, so he sat in silence next to his superior and observed the sleek announcement board that was seamlessly running across the top of the windows. As the train started moving, the board began to count up the speed that they were travelling at. At one point they were travelling over 300mph!_

 _After a 15 minute ride the train began to slow, until it finally pulled into the station. Out of the pristine windows White could see a small greeting assembly that was waiting for them. As they disembarked, a man with perfectly coiffed blonde hair, dark rimmed glasses, dressed in an impeccably tailored grey suit, brilliant white shirt and blue tie stepped forward and reached out for a handshake. In his other arm he was carrying a hefty folder filled with paperwork and the Vault Tec logo on the front._

 _"Greetings gentlemen, I trust your trip was comfortable?" he smiled, flashing brilliant white teeth and shaking the hand of White's superior._

 _"As always Jonathan" his superior nodded._

 _"Ah, and this must be our potential new recruit, Paladin White" Jonathan said, turning his attention to White and reaching his hand out. White accepted it hesitantly. The pleasant nature of this man felt unusual…_

 _White nodded as his hand was shaked vigorously._

 _"I see he is a man of little words. Perfect, you'll fit right in… Assuming you pass our examinations", Jonathan added._

 _White had no idea where he was, how far underground they were, or why he was brought here; but he had a feeling that there was something wrong with this place… And that if he played his cards just right, he might be able to figure out that answer._

* * *

 _Two…no…three weeks had gone by since White's arrival. It was so hard to tell the passage of time underground, and it didn't help that he had no time device to let him know if it was day or night. During his stay he was put through excruciatingly detailed, and sometimes painful examinations. He didn't see his superior or his comrades ever since they disembarked off the train. Instead, he had the extreme displeasure of seeing Jonathan's smiling face every day. The most peculiar thing was watching his smile broaden every time White was put through an examination that caused him significant physical distress._

 _White was poked, prodded, dunked in isolation tanks filled with saline water, put in freezing cold isolation rooms and left for hours until he suffered hypothermia, all the hair on his head was shaved, he was stripped of his clothes, electrodes stuck onto his scalp, he was shown random images and his neural responses recorded, kept awake for over 72 hours straight, starved, made to run on a treadmill while being administered adrenaline until his legs gave out and his heart threatened to stop, and at one point he was waterboarded. These… examinations, or whatever the others liked calling them, were nothing more than torture, designed to study, break, and re-program him. And through all of that he was surrounded by people in lab coats, all taking notes on him and every reading or physical reaction that occurred._

 _On the last day of this torture, White felt that if he had to endure another bout of "examination" that he would attempt to take his own life…_

 _The door to his dark isolation room swung open and Jonathan walked in, grin and all. White kept his head down and his eyes to the ground, feeling a wave of nausea at the sound of his voice and the cloying aroma of his aftershave._

 _"Hello White, today's the big day" he said enthusiastically as he knelt in front of him, "You wanna know why? Oh, come on, take a guess". White could almost feel Jonathan's beaming eyes wash over him, but he kept his head down and eyes focused on a floor tile._

 _"You tell me…egghead" White responded. His voice sounded alien to him, as though someone else was speaking with a deep, rough, weathered voice._

 _"Oh, you just know how to push my buttons, don't you?" he replied in a teasing voice, as if he was trying to mildly scold his spouse._

 _"Today you take your final test! If you pass, you will become an official operative for our organisation. And believe me…. You don't want to fail this one" he said, leaning in._

 _Amused, White scoffed, "Hmm, and… why not?"_

 _"Because the only way to leave here if you fail... is in a box"…_

* * *

A bright light down the hallway made him squint. White could make out a doorway and a gleaming steel chair in what looked like a silver box room with reflective panels and two guards standing on either side of the doorway.

Due to his physical deterioration, White could not walk and had to be dragged down the pristine hallway. He kept trying to stand and walk himself. If this was going to be his last moments alive, he wanted to at least walk do his destiny like a Legionary soldier; but his knees were giving way, so he let himself be dragged. No point in kidding himself… dignity and self-worth were left behind on that platform the moment he shook Jonathan's clammy hand when his superior handed him over to these…profligates…

Like he was worthless to them.

Everything in this facility was spotless, from the walls and floors in the hallway to the boots on the guards that were hauling White down the hallway… that is everything except for him. He was the only thing that didn't seem to fit the high "hygienic" standards. And there was a high probability that he was not going to pass this final test.

'Just as well…I never fit in anywhere…' he thought to himself. Memories of that man being crucified when he was young filled his mind. What was curious was that White remembered almost every detail about that moment, except for the man's face. It was as if he didn't have one…

"Put him on the chair and secure the straps" Jonathan's voice echoed from a speaker inside the room mounted just above the doorway. The guards complied, roughly placing White on the cold hard chair and securing his wrists, waist, and ankles. A belt with wires was attached around his chest and a flexible transparent material in the shape of a helmet was stuck to his freshly shaved scalp. In front of him was a mirror that ran the entire length and width of the wall. He knew he was being watched…

Once he was secured to the chair and it was made sure that he could barely even wiggle in the spot, the guards turned on their heels and vacated the room, locking the door behind them.

"Begin the procedure" Jonathan's voice reverberated from the speaker, and on his cue a door hidden by the reflective metal panels on his left opened with two doctors or researchers walked in covered from head to toe in cleanroom overalls, lab glasses and surgical masks. They were wheeling in monitoring equipment with them, as well as a medical tray loaded with an assortment of drugs already dosed in their respective syringes. White's heart quickened in his chest, and he could feel the adrenaline rush as his thoughts were flooded with images of his past, his present, and the future that will be taken away from him…

One of the individuals walked behind White and secured his head to the chair's head rest with a Velcro strap, while the other wheeled the surgical cart to his left side and picked up a syringe with a slightly yellow liquid. He roughly flicked a vein in White's arm and proceeded to inject the unknown fluid into his system. White's eyes were wide with fear and he was straining to see what they were doing to him. He started feeling slightly lightheaded as if he was about to pass out, but he fought against the sensation and tried to stay conscious. The doctor behind White's head moved to his other side and began connecting gel pads to his wrists, chest, and ankles.

"What are you doing?" White asked faintly. His voice sounded slightly slurred and far away, but he got no answers from the men in white.

Suddenly the mirror in front of him disappeared and a whole other section of the room was revealed. Jonathan was standing in the middle facing White and in front of a control panel. He smiled, reached down to one of the computers, and White saw his lips move but heard his voice come through the speaker above the door.

"Just relax and let the serum do its job. This of this as a day off" he smiled cheerily.

"You…have a twisted sense of humour" was all strength White could muster to reply.

Jonathan's smile slightly retreated. Was that a slight concern in his eyes?

"Relaaaaax White, just take steady breaths in and out. Don't fight it, or it'll take its toll on you" Jonathan added before the mirror re-appeared and White could see his own reflection again.

He could see his skin growing pale, his skin going stiff and his cheeks beginning to go gaunt. His entire body felt on fire.

"…What the hell…are you doing to me?!" he gasped as he desperately tried to stay awake, fighting the serum.

"Sedative! NOW!" Jonathan's voice boomed from the speaker and one of the men in white injected White with another syringe filled with white liquid and the world faded out into nothing…

* * *

Faint but steady beeping roused White from the darkness as he sluggishly opened his eyes. The light in the room was too bright, making him squint, and every object he saw around him seemed to emanate a glow along their edges, as if being overexposed. He was in what looked like a hospital bed, with bright fluorescent lights above him, a drip connected to a vein in his left arm and a privacy curtain that encircled his bed, obstructing his view of the rest of the room.

He tried to call out but his mouth and throat were so parched that all he could do was wheeze. Moving was out of the question, his body felt like it was paralysed. Then, the sound of footsteps drew near. They stopped in front of the curtain and a worried looking Jonathan pulled it back, heaved a sigh of relief once he saw White was awake, and took a seat on the chair next to some medical monitoring devices. He wasn't smiling…

"Good" he exhaled, "you're awake. Finally." Taking a jug of water that was sitting on the bedside table, he poured some into a glass and added a straw to it and helped White drink by holding it in front of him since he couldn't move yet. Feeling the sensation of the water quenching his thirst was almost exhilarating, as was the realisation that was beginning to sink in: he was alive!

"What…happened?" he managed to ask after Jonathan placed the glass back on the table. "Why...why am I..."

"Still alive?" Jonathan finished the question for him, "You passed the test. But you also caused some damage to yourself when you refused to allow the serum to work" he picked up a mirror and held it in front of White so he could see himself. The reflection staring back at him was hard to accept... His grey eyes were bloodshot, his skin adopted a slight grey tint to it, his cheeks were slightly sunken and he had prominent dark circles under his eyes. It was as if he had aged rapidly in the span of a few minutes, but all he could do was stare at the strange reflection with his mouth slightly ajar...

"I know it looks a bit grim now, but it should get better given time" Jonathan moved on to another topic, "Now that you are awake I will need to begin giving you the briefing -"

"Wait..." White interrupted, looking slightly uncertain, "I have no memory of the test...how...what was my result?"

Jonathan smiled and sat back in the chair, crossing his legs, "That's perfectly normal, none of our subjects have any recollections of the test. It was a simulation, the serum contained a certain psychedelic compound with some...proprietary enhancements. We monitored your thoughts and behaviour in the simulation, and to answer your final question, you passed. Hence why you're still alive"

White still had a hard time believing all of this, considering the hell he'd been through; he had resigned to his fate that there was a high probability that he would not walk out of this one alive. Yet here he was…and despite his inability to move for the moment, he savoured every sweet breath of air.

Jonathan's smile crept back slowly as he started the de-briefing, "Right, where was I? Ah yes, now that you have passed, once you are completely recovered we will have to organise some training for you. However in the meantime, there is some paperwork to go through." He pulled out what looked like a thin sheet of paper from a pocket inside his jacket about the size of his palm; but it wasn't ordinary paper, it was glowing, and all Jonathan had to do to turn the page was flick the screen. He read him out some terms of a contract that White was now part of due to his completion of the examinations and torture these people put him through. Frankly, he dozed off on more than one occasion, only to be prodded awake by Jonathan.

"And there we have it. Any questions?" Jonathan asked as he broke his gaze away from the glowing piece of paper in his hand and looked at White expectantly.

White blinked and cleared his throat, "Yes, what is this place?"

"Vault Tech" Jonathan answered in his usual enthusiastic manner.

"I'm in a vault?" White asked perplexed.

"No, you're in _the_ Vault"

White's eyes narrowed in confusion, "I don't understand"

Jonathan sighed and took off his glasses, rubbing his sore eyes as he began to explain, "This is the first vault built to house the powers that be from the old world. High ranking officials from secret organisations, military, airforce, government officials with vested interests in the success of Vault Tech…and the founders of Vault Tech themselves. This place was designed to be self-sustaining and survive many centuries after the bombs were dropped. If all civilisation would be obliterated today, we would have all the necessary tools, resources, and people to begin rebuilding it".

The reality of the position he found himself in was beginning to dawn on White, and he didn't like being anyone's puppet. He also felt that there was a lot more information that was not being given to him. For now, he would have to take things one step at a time and find out as much information as he could in the next coming weeks.

"Is that all?" Jonathan asked.

White nodded hesitantly, "For now…"

"Excellent!" Jonathan beamed, "Place your index finger on the box" he instructed as he flipped the paper to face White and positioned it within easy reach of his right index finger.

White complied and placed his shaky finger on the box, which was next to his name. He noticed two other fingerprints and names above his. One was Jonathan's, the other was a name he would soon learn was his new employer:

Dr. D. Hadden.

* * *

 _6 months later_

White completed his training within eight months' time. It took him the better part of a month to recover from the excruciating examination and screening, but he pulled through with the medication and physiotherapy that the researchers and doctors at Vault Tech provided. In the time he spent there, he received extensive combat and equipment training, was taught topics that he would never have imagined existed, and still had to endure physical and psychological evaluations at the end of every week. The only downside was that his face was still slightly gaunt and his skin still had a faint grey tinge to it. Other than that, he was starting to feel a lot like his old self. However, in all this time, he was never let back out to the surface, nor did he see his commanding officer and the other Brotherhood of Steel members that had escorted him to the Vault. But now he had other things to worry about.

The Vault was especially busy today, with engineers, researchers, medical teams and maintenance crews all engaged in their duties. Something must be up…

White was walking down one of the pristine hallways to Jonathan's office, keeping in line with the busy human traffic and following the blue line on the floor directing him to the East Medical Wing. He had received an urgent communique not ten minutes ago, but with no additional information as to what this was all about. Rounding a corridor, he made his way to Jonathan's office, room 3.11. There were no typical doors in this Vault. All entrances and exits were seamless; the only way you could tell there was a door is by the numbers that seemed to glow on the walls. White walked up to the glowing 3.13 numbers, faced the door and placed his right index finger on the first numeral. He watched as the number disappeared and was replaced by a glowing blue circle. It took a few seconds before it flashed green and opened the door. White stepped inside and saw Jonathan in his usual place behind his desk, furiously scribbling something on a piece of paper. He walked over to take a seat in the chair opposite Jonathan as he normally did for their meetings, but Jonathan held up a hand in front of him.

"Don't sit, we're not staying here" he said as he finished writing and tucked the documents in a black envelope and sealed it.

"Where are we going then?" White asked curiously as he followed Jonathan out of the office and back down the corridor.

"Down".

Jonathan lead White to a special elevator that could only be accessed if you had the correct key. They got in and when the doors closed White noticed that there were no dials or buttons to press, but as soon as Jonathan finished reciting a series of numbers and letters the elevator hummed to life and White could feel they were moving.

"Where are we going?" he asked again, feeling a knot in his stomach as the last time someone lead him into unfamiliar territory without telling him where they were going he ended up being tortured…

Jonathan took a slightly shaky breath and straightened out his tie and glasses. He wasn't smiling…

"It's time for you to meet your employer…"


	24. Chapter 25: Daniel Hadden

White couldn't even tell if the elevator was moving or not, but he could feel his ears pop once due to changes in pressure. Before there was even time for an awkward silence to develop between Jonathan and himself, a gentle sound of a bell's ring informed them that they had reached their destination.

Jonathan turned to White, "Stay right behind me and don't linger, no matter what you see." He instructed with a stern look on his face. White nodded in agreement and followed him out into a dimly lit dark hallway. This section of the bunker was very different from the levels above. The floors and walls were not white, instead they were lined with highly polished black panels that contained joined reflective streaks in intricate shapes and patterns. The beauty and craftsmanship was mesmerising and White found it hard to look away from it.

"Don't touch the walls" Jonathan's voice echoed, as if he could sense White's intrigue.

Jonathan led him through a series of hallways, rooms and through a blast door before stopping in front of two guards clad in security armour and electric shock batons secured on their hips. He procured his identification card and motioned for White to do the same. The guards hovered their hands over the ID cards until a brief flash of light emanated from their palms, prompting a section of fabric on their sleeves to turn white and list the identification markers.

"Identities confirmed. He's expecting you" the first guard motioned them forward while the other opened the blast doors with an intricate key.

What came next was nothing White could ever prepare for. A floating mechanical device with what appeared to be spindly arms, a scanning device mounted at the front, and a brain contained in a clear dome, suspended in a very pale blue liquid that seemed to shimmer.

"Woah!" he exclaimed, taking a step back and bumping into the first guard standing behind him.

"Hello Jonathan, please come in" a soft woman's voice emanated from a speaker attached at the bottom of the hovering brain.

"Thank you Alison, how have you been?" Jonathan inquired nonchalantly, as though a hovering encased brain with mechanical arms was a normal thing to witness. Still shocked, White shook his head to recover from what he had seen and followed the two in front of him into the complex before the blast doors closed. They looked to be in a greeting or reception room. There were plenty of seating areas and the place was decorated in a very modern style the likes White had never seen before above ground. It didn't seem to match any old-world style, but looked to be minimalist futuristic with hints of the old world.

 _'If this is just their greeting area, I can't imagine what the rest of this place looks like'_ White thought as he admired his surroundings while following Jonathan and the floating brain.

"I'm very well thank you, and yourself? I see you have a new recruit for us" she spoke. White couldn't imagine what would push someone to do this to themselves…to sever themselves from their body entirely…

"Ah yes, Alison, this is White" Jonathan introduced them hastily as they walked through another corridor and into the largest open space White had ever seen. He stopped in his tracks with his mouth slightly ajar, watching the scientists and engineers milling around carrying out their tasks. The space was at least three times the size of an aircraft hangar and four storeys tall. In the middle of the space was what looked like a more advanced version of Liberty Prime.

"Is…that?..." White's mouth gaped in awe as he pointed at the robot.

"Don't lag!" Jonathan reproved as White jogged to catch up.

"Right, so this is a very important meeting for you White" Jonathan continued, "This is your first face-to-face contact with Dr. Hadden. He will likely test your resolve and your loyalty, he normally comes down like a ton of bricks on new recruits. But stick to the points we went over last week and everything should be fine."

White watched him, somewhat amused to see Jonathan squirming for a change. "No problem, I'll stick to the notes" he reassured. "Just out of curiosity, does Dr. Hadden meet with all new recruits this way?"

"No…the Founding Fathers don't make it a point to meet new recruits, unless there is a specific need or the recruits have proven themselves valuable" Jonathan's forehead furrowed.

"Why not?" White asked, now more apprehensive about this meeting.

"Because we don't make it a habit to take outsiders into our organisation. You are actually one of only a handful that have ever been recruited since the founding of this base" he replied hesitantly. That answer made White feel apprehensive. There was no way to know how this vis-à-vis was going to go. For all he knew, they could be planning on turning him into a floating brain like Alison… The thought sent a cold shiver up his spine.

"So…how many are there?" White enquired as they passed through into another corridor lined with the beautiful glistening stone panels with swirling silver patterns. Large and long windows were on either sides of the corridor, each giving a glimpse into pristine brightly lit futuristic labs with researchers and scientists all dressed in full white cleanroom lab gear and masks over their faces.

Jonathan looked like he was considering how to answer that question, "You're the third to make it to this stage."

White's eyes widened with apprehension, "How many have there been before me?"

Jonathan bit his lip and shifted his gaze away from White as he proceeded to carry on walking.

"No time for that now we will be late if we don't continue" Jonathan replied as he increased their pace to a fast march.

They went through a set of doors at the end of the corridor and were greeted by two guards dressed in black security gear – stab proof vests, helmets, tactical gloves and glasses, and machine guns across their shoulders. They were standing in front of a large airlock door that didn't appear to have any control panels or key card access to open.

"Identification, please" the first guard stepped forward holding a hand up to halt them while Jonathan fished for his and White's ID in his pocket and handed them over.

"Look up at the camera to your right, please" the other guard instructed while the first read their credentials. Then they heard a piercing hiss and the airlock doors opened.

"Alright, you're authorised to proceed" the first guard waved them through and the group stepped inside hurriedly. White couldn't imagine doing this every time he had to have a meeting with his employer…then again, he couldn't imagine ever finding himself in such a position in the first place.

"This way" Alison guided them through a corridor and into what looked like someone's living room with a large flat screen covering almost an entire wall. It flickered to life as soon as they stepped inside the room and a colour picture of a man in his late sixties with blue eyes and wayfarer style glasses was looking directly at them. He was fully interactive, as if they were having a video conversation with someone in another location. White tried desperately not to look flabbergasted.

"Welcome, please have a seat" he said, directing his gaze to the black modern three-seater couch just behind them. "I have had a look through the files you sent me John, I have to say I'm surprised with your recommendation".

Jonathan nodded, "I can see why that would be, considering his history".

"Yes, it says here he was a member of Caesar's Legion…" Hadden paused, unflinchingly gazing at Jonathan as if scrutinising his decisions. White was beginning to feel extremely self-conscious and out of place.

"Sir, I'm sure you've seen his results. They are the beyond what any of us even expected, even better than some of the results scored by our most high ranking – "

"Yes, yes, I can see his results right here" Hadden cut him off and absentmindedly rummaged through some paperwork, "But this doesn't tell me anything. We've had plenty of similar results in the past, this doesn't prove anything".

Jonathan gulped and shifted in his seat. The remark made him visibly uneasy.

"Well, sir… If there are any concerns I am certain that they can be quelled-" he began, but was interrupted once more by his superior.

"Please leave us". As all three made a move off the couch, Hadden appeared slightly annoyed, "Not _you_ " he said looking directly at White, "You're not free to go yet. Jonathan, Alison, please wait outside. I highly doubt this will take more than a minute".

White felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. Could all of this have been for nothing?...

Jonathan gave White an apologetic glance before he and Alison stepped out of the room and White heard the familiar hiss of the airlock doors open and close.

"So…you're Logan White. Former Legionary, Brotherhood Knight, and now…you land at my door" Hadden seemed slightly annoyed as he took off his glasses and squinted at White, his large image towering over him.

"Yes, sir" was all White could reply.

"Tell me, _Logan_ , do you know why you are here?"

White looked slightly awkward and befuddled. He took a moment to think before shaking his head. "No, sir…"

"Well, at least we have that in common" Hadden replied, "Please follow your colleagues out. We will be terminating your residence and training here" he went back to flicking through some paperwork, while White stood in place, too shell shocked to move.

After a few seconds of standing there, Hadden noticed that he hadn't left. "What are you waiting for boy? I told you to leave".

"But…sir, my…what was the point of this meeting if all your intention was to dismiss me?" White questioned, trying to keep his voice calm and unwavering.

Hadden shrugged, "Sometimes I like to meet the individuals who have the impudence to waste the resources of this facility before I terminate them".

That reply felt like a kick to the gut. All White could do was look up at the unamused man on the screen with his mouth slightly ajar and his mind panicking.

"Right, well, unlike you I have a purpose here, and that is to keep the facility running and progress going in the right direction, so if you are not going to leave then I will terminate this communication and leave you to your decisions". And with that the screen turned off, leaving White feeling like the floor was falling away from under him…

* * *

Silence enveloped him. In this re-enforced bunker room, there were no sounds. Not even the hum of electricity, which was something White didn't pick up on before. His mind was in limbo; racing from thoughts about what was going to happen to him next, to planning a way to prove himself to these people, to the question that Hadden had asked him: "Tell me, _Logan_ , do you know why you are here?"

The truth was that question made him panic. It was the same feeling he experienced when he found out that he was no longer going to be in the Legion, but acting as a spy and living with the enemy…the same feeling he had when he became Knight…but it was more than that…

The seed of that fear came from that day he watched a man get crucified….

White stood there in place, a living statue too afraid to stir the air around him in case it turned into a wave and washed him somewhere else, or worse… drown him.

Taking in a shuddering breath, feeling hot tears in his eyes as he resigned himself to his fate, he turned to face the hallway leading to the exit and slowly started walking in that direction.

 _'Stop'_ a voice in his head resonated as he reached the archway of the hall. White felt his heart begin to race.

"I'm not a quitter" he whispered and turned around, going back to his previous position and stood there in defiance.

 *****3 days later*****

After three days and three nights, the hallucinations were beginning to creep up on White. The lack of water, food, human contact, mental and physical stimulation were taking their toll on him. Doesn't matter how much training you go through to get through such circumstances, everyone's mind has a breaking point…and this was White's.

The image of the man being nailed to the cross kept replaying over and over in his mind. White was reclined on the three-seater couch, his eyes wide open staring at the ceiling but his mind was elsewhere. And another memory would occasionally creep up on him. It must have been the time when he was still spying for the Legion, but while he was in the Brotherhood. He had managed to sneak away by stealing a stealthboy from one of the lockers filled with confiscated technology and go to Cottonwood Cove to deliver information. The memory was the most vivid he had. It was the panic in the camp after a gunshot was heard and a woman had collapsed. The memory itself was of him staring down at that woman…

Hair the colour of honey, blue eyes open and going cloudy, a bloody red dot in between her eyes and a cerise stain spreading in the dirt around her head…her belly round…

Then back to the crucifixion memory all over again.

"Why the fuck d'I pick that fucking name?" he asked out loud, grimacing in pain. His mouth was so dry that his tongue felt like sandpaper.

His thoughts over the past couple of days drifted to every memory he had in his life…except for a period of his childhood. In fact, he had no memory of his childhood… The very first memory he could clearly recall was seeing that man being crucified.

 _'Doesn't matter anyway…'_

* * *

Daniel stood at the foot of the couch, his arms crossed around his chest, watching the medics tend to a weak and feverish White. Deep down he felt pity for this man who had suffered so much at the hands of those he trusted.

"How is he?" Daniel enquired his medics.

"Soon as we get his body fluids back to normal and some food in him, he should be back to normal Sir. Although after five days without food and water he'll need a couple of days rest" one of them replied.

"Good. Fix him up and have him sent to my briefing room as soon as he's conscious".

"Yes sir, right away" the medic replied obediently. If there was one thing Daniel valued, it was the obedience of those that served him. But what he valued even more than that was loyalty, and he had a feeling that White would turn out to be his most loyal operative.

After a couple of hours, White found himself sitting in an immaculate meeting room. A mahogany table at least 13 feet in length was stretched out in front of him with an open plan seating room a couple of paces away from the end of the table. A plate of prime cut fillet mignon with an artistic drizzle of mushroom and red wine gravy, mashed Yukon potatoes, and a side of steamed greens, all steaming under his nose sent his senses into overdrive and made his mouth salivate. This was a far cry from the situation he was in that morning. If he wasn't starving, he could have sworn he'd died and gone to paradise…even though he knew with certainty that such a place did not exist for him.

He picked up the cutlery next to his plate with shaky fingers. Despite his hunger, he wasn't going to eat like an animal. As soon as he finished his meal, a knock came at the door at the other end of the room and was swiftly opened, revealing his host. White's mouth gaped slightly in surprise, not expecting to see his employer ever again.

"I trust the meal was to your satisfaction" Daniel commented, "If not I will let my cook know to prepare you something more to your liking".

"Sir! No, Sir, it was… frankly the best meal I have ever had in my life" White cleared his throat and tried to stand on shaky legs, but Daniel waved him back down.

"No, no, please sit. After what you've just gone through you need to get your strength back up to 100%. Especially if you are to be my new recruit."

White looked up at Daniel, shocked that he would bring up his recruitment.

"But…I thought I was out" he said numbly.

Daniel chuckled, "Well, certainly _not_ out. But I had to make sure…"

"It was a test…" White said hesitantly, to which Daniel nodded.

"Yes, to see how you would react. It was more of a psychological test than anything. It was cruel to put you in that state of mind, I know, but sometimes cruelty is necessary; and when done correctly can nudge a person in the path they've always wanted to take, which in your case is to belong somewhere", Daniel looked at White, a hint of sympathy in his gaze before he quickly shifted on to the matter at hand.

"So, now that we're here, time to fill you in on everything you need to know…"


	25. Chapter 26: The Interrogation Room

Maya's face turned pale, as if she had seen a ghost; and White noticed, a corner of his thin lips twitched in amusement.

"Your…employer?" she asked hesitantly, feeling her mouth going dry and her heart race with apprehension.

White bowed his head slowly but kept his gaze on her, "Your old colleague, Dr. Daniel Hadden".

Her mind was numb, how could this have happened? And most importantly: how was he still alive?

"How is this possible?" she asked incredulously.

White sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking as though he were considering his next words carefully.

He told Maya about how Daniel shared every information with White after his ordeal: about his life before the Great War, his research at the University with his best friend and fellow researcher, Maya, working on the particle collider, then a freak accident that occurred when they were inside the chamber and she disappeared, leaving Daniel severely exposed to chroniton radiation. For many years, this went undiagnosed because the technology did not exist to detect it. It affected every cell in his body, making him age at a slower rate than everyone else. After the accident, he suffered severe episodes of depression, and required several years to recover from the ordeal. White spoke of the events several years after the accident, and how Daniel formed his company, Omega Prime, which focused on creating state of the art and prototype power generators, genetic engineering and manipulation, and energy weapons. This caught the attention of the U.S. military and Omega Prime became drawn into a new and much larger organisation: Vault-Tec. As founder and leader of Omega Prime, Daniel became one of the first founders of Vault-Tec as well, helping to create and establish many of the protocols and systems that Vault-Tec had come to use. However, in all that time, he had never given up on trying to find a way to find Maya, and that every project he had worked on he was trying to find a way to get her back. That desire to find her turned into an obsession that he had to see through, so he poured all his scientific resources until he found the answer: time.

He had a theory based on the scientific data they collected that Maya were thrown out of time and sent into the distant future, but he did not know when. That was, until he found out about the results following Elder McNamara's attempt to send a message to the past.

"So, I did travel into the future…" Maya blurted out, looking somewhat confused.

White nodded. "Daniel wants you to go back to your own time Maya. His theory is that if you return, all of this can be prevented".

"But it doesn't add up" Maya mused.

"What's that?" White asked.

Maya stood up and started slowly pacing in the room, mulling over all the information in her head. "This world…the technology, the remnants from the 'old world' as you call it, it doesn't fit…It's like I've not only been shifted into the future, but also into a parallel universe"

White was hoping that this would not come up, he had to throw her off the trail. "That's because technology and everything took a different turn when you disappeared" he said, hoping that would suffice.

She shook her head uncertainly, "I doubt it, one person vanishing from time isn't enough to send the entire timeline into chaos… it's too much of a change… It's like everything took on a retro 50's vibe. It doesn't make sense".

Then White remembered something about what Daniel told him about time travel, he might be able to use it in this situation. "It's the Butterfly Effect. You were taken out of the equation and history as you know of after that had changed".

Maya stopped pacing and turned to face White, "That would only apply if thousands…no hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of years passed. Not a mere 200. And even if it were true, I'm not _that_ significant to the timeline"

For a few moments silence enveloped them as Maya contemplated and White tried urgently to conjure up something that would offer a passable explanation and throw her off the scent. Then it hit him.

"Would you say the same thing if, for instance, Newton was taken out of the equation? If he suddenly disappeared from his timeline, what would have happened to our future as we know it? What if Einstein was removed before he made his great discoveries? How would that have affected the world? Everything would be different, the world and its scientific breakthroughs would have shaped everything differently".

Maya laughed, amused at the thought that _he_ of all people would make a comparison like that, "I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not that important".

"And how do you know that?" White gazed at her unflinchingly.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Maya stopped laughing and regarded White critically.

White shrugged, "If you won't believe me, then you should believe Daniel. This is his theory, not mine".

"I want to see him… this needs to come from him" she demanded.

 _'I've got her now'_ White thought, relieved.

"In time, you will, but there is more work to be done before a reunion is to be scheduled" White replied, "But whatever you decide, you should keep this in mind: if you go back, this world, its catastrophes and meaningless wars and death _will_ be averted. All it takes is _one_ person to change history." He regarded her sternly, his grey bloodshot eyes not breaking contact with hers.

"You won't even get a chance to act on your plans; the Legion will not allow this foolish tampering with time to suit _your_ needs!" Alerio broke his silence, a look of disgust upon his face, "And you, you profligate bitch" he spat at Maya, leaning forward in his seat, "When the entire Legion force is done with you, you'll wish we had made you a slave…"

The corner of White's mouth curved upward in a sneer as he turned to face Alerio.

"I'm going to need you to look away now Maya" he said calmly, but before Maya even had time to process what was going on, White's restraints fell away from his arms and legs and he launched himself at Alerio. Before he made physical contact with the Legionary, Maya saw a flash of steel, then it disappeared into Alerio's neck, releasing a crimson river of blood that sputtered onto White.

Maya covered her face and screamed as the violent image was burned in her mind. Like an air raid siren, her scream was so loud it echoed through the prison door and alerted the guards outside, so much so that she didn't even hear the door unlock and the furious pounding footsteps of NCR soldiers on the concrete floor filling the small room. She moved back until she collided with the wall and sank to the floor, but almost immediately felt a pair of sturdy arms grab hold of her and pull her out of the room. It was Colonel Hsu.

"Maya! Maya it's okay, you're safe" he re-assured her, his voice calming and gentle; but the scene kept replaying in Maya's head and she shook her head.

Hsu sighed and pulled her close, "Come on, let's get you out of here" he said as he tried to pick her up.

"No!" Maya pushed him back, "No, I'm…I'm okay, I can walk" she said through shuddering breaths, slowly removing her hands from her face.

"Oh…Maya…" Hsu's expression was sorrowful as he saw that she had drawn blood on her forehead where her fingernails were pressing.

"I'm okay…I'm okay…" Maya kept saying over and over, trying to calm herself down and force the images out of her head. Instead she tried to focus on her surroundings, the soldiers rushing in and out of the interrogation room. A pale faced Boyd was standing to the side watching her. No doubt she had seen the river of gore.

"Alright, let's get you to your friends. They must be very worried about you now" Hsu didn't want to let go of Maya's arm in case she faltered and fell down the escalator stairs as he led her to McNamara's tent. But before they could get to the bottom of the stairs, McNamara jogged into the base with a slight limp.

"Maya!" he ran over to them, wincing in pain. "What happened?"

"There has been an incident in the interrogation room" Col. Hsu answered, letting go of Maya's arm.

"What incident? We saw soldiers running into the base. What happened?" McNamara urged.

"The prisoner, White, has fatally wounded the other Legionary prisoner. It happened while Maya was still inside…" Hsu answered apologetically. "I am deeply sorry for what Maya witnessed. If there is anything I can do…well…my door is always open. I must leave you two for the moment though, to deal with the situation at hand." he bowed his head slightly before rushing back up to the room.

Maya was shaking, but the image was starting to fade from her mind as she forced herself to look around her surroundings. McNamara's presence helped too.

"You shouldn't be on your feet, you're hurt" she commented, staring at his bandaged legs.

McNamara sighed, pulled her in for a hug and held her for a moment, until he felt her arms wrap around his waist. He had a sinking feeling that what happened was just the beginning; but he knew that as long as he drew breath, he wasn't going to let anyone or anything harm her like that again.

"Come on, let's go get some rest…"


	26. Chapter 27: A Family Like No Other

"I need to see her" Boone grunted as he struggled with the doctor to get out of bed.

"You will do no such thing, you are still recovering!" the doctor reprimanded him as she tried to keep him from sitting up, "Urngh, if you keep this up I'm going to call the guards".

"Go ahead" he challenged, pressing forward.

"Do you want me to go to Colonel Hsu?! Because I will, and I will get the guards to secure you to this bed by force if necessary" she threatened as she fought back against her patient's efforts. Bringing up the Colonel seemed to give him pause for thought though because he stopped struggling and seemed to regard her with some loathing.

"… Fine" he replied after a brief pause and slowly reclined back on the bed.

The doctor nodded in thanks and straightened her white coat. "Good, thank you. I'll have someone send for her to visit you as soon as she is awake" she said before she shook her head in disbelief and made her way back to her other patients.

Boone heaved a long sigh of frustration. He was in an aggravated state since word spread about what had happened in the early hours of that morning. Even though everyone told him that she was alright, he couldn't sleep…couldn't rest until he could see for himself. After spending time with Maya and getting to know her, he knew that despite what everyone was saying - easily dismissing the ordeal - that she wasn't all right. These kinds of things affected her deeply. She wasn't like everyone else here, used to seeing suffering and death daily; she wasn't immune to its effects. And they would never know…

He resigned himself to his fate and lay back, pressing hard against the soft pillows under his head in defiance of his treatment, counting the passage of time on the clock mounted on the wall in front of him…

* * *

Maya woke sometime before noon. Usually when she woke she checked the time on her PipBoy, but now it seemed pointless to keep track of such a trivial thing…

After the events of the previous night, she had spent at least two or three hours talking with McNamara until her throat felt raw. Luckily the rest of the group was asleep and she could speak with him privately about everything White had shared with her. He didn't interrupt or question her, he just sat and listened patiently, and when she couldn't talk anymore he held her close until she felt safe enough to fall asleep.

She lay on her sprung mattress, and stared off in the distance until nothing even registered anymore; just her thoughts. She didn't even realise when the tent flap opened and a hobbling McNamara came in and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Hey, Earth to Maya, come in Maya" he tried to smile as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "You there?" It seemed to work.

"Oh, hey… Sorry I was far away" she replied, then smiled as if she was recollecting a fond memory.

"What? Was it something I said?" McNamara grinned as he looked down at her.

Maya nodded, "My dad used to say that to me when he caught me daydreaming…"

That remark made McNamara pause, and for some reason he felt a greater urge to protect her and keep her from any harm. It made him wonder what it would have been like if he had a family…a daughter to look after, to love and care for. He started feeling a lump in his throat.

"Ramos and Ibsen are outside eating all the NCR's breakfast rations if you'd like to go out and join them" he said, giving her shoulder a gentle and encouraging shake. She nodded and sat up slowly, feeling a headache that was starting to spread its ugly tendrils through her scalp. The bright light outside wasn't helping either.

McNamara noticed her grimacing in pain and asked if she was alright.

"Yeah, just have a headache" Maya reached a hand up to her head and started to massage her scalp, hoping it would help it go away.

"It's the lack of sleep. You've only had about five or six hours" he helped her sit up and got her some painkillers from the pouch on his belt. "Here, take these" he handed her two white pills and a half-filled bottle of purified water, "It'll banish that headache right away".

Downing the two pills and finishing all the water in the bottle, Maya fumbled for her boots and roughly tied the laces up enough to walk outside and get to the dining table. She shielded her eyes from the harsh sunlight as she stepped out of the shelter of her tent and walked with McNamara to where Ibsen, Ramos, and Irvine were sat.

Ramos was the first to greet her, "Hey Maya, come have a seat with us" he pulled up a chair next to him. "Nolan told us about what happened. I can't imagine what compelled that psychopath to do that, and right in front of you as well" he shook his head in disbelief and irritation.

Irvine's brow furrowed as he turned and looked at Ramos from across the table, "Maybe the fact that he is a psychopath?" he said in a slightly mocking way.

Ramos squinted at him and threw a small piece of bread in his direction that bounced off his head and landed in his drink, making Maya chuckle. Her reaction made McNamara feel a bit more at ease. Considering all the stress she had gone through the past month since she got here, and now witnessing a brutal and bloody murder, he was worried about her.

'I've made such a mess of things…' he thought as he looked around the table, at Maya and what was left of his group. His gaze lingered on Maya, watching as she interacted with her new group of friends who have all risked life and limb at one time or another, and who would gladly give their lives for each other.

'Don't you agree Nolan?" Ibsen asked, breaking McNamara's train of thought.

"Hmm?" McNamara looked slightly confused as he was brought back to reality, "agree with what?"

"That we're kind of like a family" Maya smiled contently. Her words took him slightly by surprise; but in a way, it was exactly what was going through his own mind that morning.

He nodded and returned her smile, "I guess, in an unconventional way, we are".

"Well, Okay then mom, can I go play with the other kids now?" Ramos joked as he leaned in and feigned a childlike beg, to which everyone chuckled.

McNamara's eyes narrowed, studying Ramos critically as he played along with the role he was given, "If Mr. Hsu says it's okay for you to play in the yard, then it's alright with me" making everyone erupt in laughter.

Ramos got up out of his chair, still chuckling as he made his way inside the airport to speak with security and get more information about what had happened the other night, while Ibsen carried on reading a book he had borrowed from one of the NCR soldiers.

"Would you like to go and see some of the aircraft at the base Maya? They've got a pretty good selection of models here, all look to be in pretty decent shape" Irvine offered as he stood up and pushed his chair in.

"Sure, I could use a distraction" Maya answered, welcoming the change that could help distract her from her current mood.

As they were making their way through the airport, she remembered Boone and her promise to see him in the morning.

"Oh crap" she cursed, "I forgot that I promised Boone I'd stop by this morning. And it's already gone noon".

"That's alright, we'll go together now" Irvine assured her as they altered their plans slightly and made their way down the now familiar hallways.

When they walked into the infirmary, they saw Boone was sitting on the edge of the bed as if he were attempting to get up and walk out.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be up!" Maya said worryingly, startling him and making him almost fall out of the bed. Maya and Irvine rushed to him and each took hold of an arm to help get him back on the bed.

The look Boone gave her when their eyes met made Maya regret breaking her promise. His eyes were concerned and somewhat sad, studying her as if looking for something…

"Maya…." He sighed, then he craned his neck as his gaze darted around the room, "Where's the doctor?"

"My guess would be she's on her lunch break" Maya answered, looking confused, "Why?"

"Don't tell her about this. She threatened to restrain me to the bed".

Maya felt her ears burn red and she had to repress a laugh. Boone seemed to notice but didn't say anything.

"What were you going to do? Break out of the infirmary?" she asked almost jokingly.

"How far d'you recon he'd get before he got caught?" Irvine joshed while Boone shot him an un-amused glare before focusing his attention back to Maya.

"What happened yesterday?" he asked. Maya could see he was concerned for her. She turned to Irvine and asked for a few moments alone with Boone to explain everything. When he left the room, Maya explained everything that had happened since she left Boone's side that night. She didn't go into too much detail, but gave all the information in a succinct way as she had already spent over two hours talking about the same thing with McNamara in the very early hours of the morning and her throat was still sore from all the talking. Boone didn't interrupt her even once; his gaze was steady and he absorbed all the information she had shared with him. When she finished, he took one of her hands in his.

"How are you doing now?" he asked sincerely.

Maya shrugged, not knowing the right words that would fit to describe her current state of mind, "I'm not sure… numb, confused, dazed…" she paused briefly, as if mulling over her next thought, "…hopeless….".

Boone heaved a sigh and squeezed her hand, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there" he said, but Maya shook her head.

"No, don't be, you're not the one who should be sorry" she said, "you didn't do anything…and I don't expect, nor do I want to be shielded from what this world is like. Yesterday was just a brutal reminder of what things are like here. I've come to accept that."

"Give it time" Boone advised, "what you are feeling now will pass. But if I were you, I would not waste my thoughts, nor my energy, on feeling sorry for a scumbag Legionary who was responsible for kidnapping you, destroying a safehouse in the process, and almost destroying our entire group as well".

"No, I'm not feeling sorry for him" Maya lied, despite knowing that Boone was completely correct, "It was the sheer brutality of the act… And it all happened in the blink of an eye".

Boone sighed and broke his gaze away from Maya. All he could think about was that it was a good thing that Maya hadn't known him in the time following Carla's abduction and death. If she had, she would have recoiled from him in horror…

"Well, I guess if everything that you've told me is true, as soon as you get back to your time this should all be averted" he said trying to sound optimistic, even though his gut was telling him otherwise.

A brief silence enveloped them as they both recuperated their thoughts.

"Well, uh… Irvine was talking up a storm about seeing those planes they have in the back and convinced me to come along" Maya started, "Would you, uh…be willing to make a break for freedom from the infirmary a bit and come along with us?" she asked sheepishly.

Boone looked at her gravely, craning his head to see if he could see or hear the doctor.

"Don't worry, I take full responsibility for this" she laughed at his reaction.

"Hmph" Boone mused looking a bit uncomfortable, "I would gladly, but… I can't walk…".

Maya's brow furrowed as she tried to think of a way to make this escape possible, then she remembered seeing a folded dusty old wheelchair down the corridor when they were making their way to the infirmary.

"Just a second!" she said as she darted out of the room and came back with the wheelchair a few minutes later.

Boone was not entertained by the option.

"It's either this, or staying in bed. Your choice" she offered, entertained by Boone's expressions changing as he weighed in his options.

"Fine, wheel me out" he relented, and the three of them quickly made their way out, dodging any nurses and doctors they came across to enjoying a couple of peaceful hours in the sun and chuckling as they watched Irvine pine over every aircraft he came across.


	27. Chapter 28: Without Her

The sun was beating down on the hot and dry concrete McCarran airbase, a gentle breeze occasionally stirring the dust that had settled on it. There was the distinct sound of a song on the radio in the vicinity, but too far away to pinpoint exactly where. Boone was sitting on a bench in the shade of the airport with a cool Nuka Cola in his hands. His posture was relaxed, his cap lopsided on his head as if it too was melting in the heat. The song was coming into focus and he recognised it right away: Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow by Nat King Cole. The melody washed over him sending a wave of goosebumps through his skin. And just as he closed his eyes and started to get lost in the tune, he heard a familiar voice humming along to the song. He blinked and looked around, and there she was in front of him…

No more than a couple of paces ahead, standing in the sunshine was Maya in an attractive yellow dress with floral embroidery, her hair slightly tousled and free flowing down past her waist. He sat up a bit straighter, almost expectantly and watched as she walked over to him, humming beautifully along with the song, her hips swaying gently with every step.

 _'Love me as though there were no tomorrow;…'_

"Hey, I didn't expect you to be out here in this heat" he said.

 _'Take me out of this world tonight. Take me; make me forget my sorrow'_

"Would you like something to drink? I managed to pick a cool Nuka Cola from the base"

 _'So when I wake tomorrow, I'll know our love was right'_

But Maya shook her head and kept humming to the song. She stopped an inch away from him and held out her hand as if asking him for a dance.

 _'Teach me all that a heart should know.'_

He gently took her hand in his and stood up. She pulled him a few paces away from the bench before moving in closer until her head was resting on his chest, her right hand in his left, while the other arm softly rested on his back. When she touched him it felt like electricity. His heart began to race and he had to try to control his breathing.

 _'Love me as though there were no tomorrow; Oh my darling, love me; don't ever let me go'_

Boone responded by tenderly wrapping his free arm around her waist, feeling her warmth merge with his.

"I…don't really know how to dance" he admitted, feeling his face flush with embarrassment, but Maya didn't seem to mind. She looked up at him and smiled, gently pulling him closer to her body, encouraging his body to sway gently from side to side with hers.

 _"Kiss me as though it were now or never; Teach me all that a heart should know.'_

His lips, the ones that refused to smile for anyone or anything, crept into a grin; which made Maya laugh. The sudden realisation hit him like a tonne of bricks: he loved the sound of her laughter and how it made her features light up like the sun. Seeing her beam and hearing her voice filled him with unimaginable happiness, something he felt he was incapable of ever feeling again. She kept humming along until Boone pulled her to him and kissed her. And in that moment, he swore this woman was an expert at keeping his heart beating. And that without her, he was sure it would simply stop.

 _'Oh my darling, love me; don't ever let me go.'_

* * *

"Boone… Come on, I'm giving you a clean bill of health and discharging you from the infirmary!" the doctor said enthusiastically, rudely rousing him from his slumber, "I thought you'd be raring to go by now, not napping"

Boone's eyes shot open and it took him a second to realise what was going on. "I…uh…I guess I must have been tired…from last night" he replied, rubbing his eyes. His heart was still fluttering from the dream...

"I'm not surprised, I hope you didn't have too much to drink with your friends. I've got a limited supply of pain medication and won't waste it on your hangover" she chided.

Boone grunted in response as he put his beret back on his head and tied up his bootlaces, cracking his neck before he stood up as he knew that would annoy the doctor. He saw her shiver in disgust out of the corner of his eye as he picked up the last of his gear and left the infirmary, finally free!

He made his way to the exit and stood in the shade while he searched the front entrance for his friends, eager to see Maya again. Then he remembered the dream he was just rudely awakened from. The memory of her in his arms made his heartbeat quicken and the skin on his neck and cheeks flush. He dared not tell her about it, not only because he would die of embarrassment if he did, but because she already had a lot on her plate to deal with.

"Looking for McNamara?" one of the NCR soldiers passing him by asked.

Boone nodded and was informed that they were in the back of the airport where the aircraft were, speaking to an engineer about spare parts for their Vertibird. Boone thanked him and quickly made his way to them.

"No, no, we need the hydraulic system for the left landing gear" he heard Irvine explain to one of NCR personnel.

"I'll see what I can do, but I don't think we have any in stock yet. I could send a salvage team to go recover the parts you need if you'd like?" the soldier politely offered, but Irvine shook his head.

He spotted Maya and stood rooted in place watching her, not being able to shake the image of her in that yellow dress with her hair falling loosely below her waist. She turned, as though she could feel she was being watched, and their eyes met.

"Boone! You're finally out" she flashed a white smile and walked over to him. Boone felt a bit like a deer in the headlights, his mouth slightly ajar as he felt like he no longer knew how to act around her. It felt as though he was losing his mind... He shook his head, hoping it would help banish the daze he was in.

"You alright?" Maya asked concerned.

"Yeah, yeah" Boone nodded, running his hand over the back of his neck, "Fine. Just a bit of a headache".

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that" she apologised, guiltily breaking eye contact much to Boone's disappointment, "Didn't mean to keep you up so late last night".

Boone waved her concerns away, "No, don't be, I had a good time" he added. Of course, that's not all he wanted to say to her…

"Hey I was thinking about going to grab an early lunch if you'd like? I haven't eaten anything today and am feeling a bit hungry" she suggested, "Don't worry about the others, they're busy sorting out supplies for our next trek".

"Erm, sure. I could eat" he nodded.

Maya beamed and took him by the arm, leading him away from the group and making Boone's neck and cheeks flush again…

Luckily everyone had just had their morning meal and were busying themselves with their work around the base when Boone and Maya arrived in the canteen. Heartaches By The Numbers by Guy Mitchell was gently playing on the radio in the background, echoing in the empty room. They each took a tin plate and filled it with food. Boone noticed that Maya was being very picky with what she was putting on her plate.

"You don't want the Brahmin steak?" he offered.

She shook her head, wrinkling her nose as if in disgust and not even looking it, "No, I think I've lost my taste for it" she said as she poured some beans over her devilled eggs and bread.

Boone looked a bit perplexed and stood rooted to the spot, "You…sure? It's the last one. We can share"

"Nah, I'm alright" she made her way to the seating area. Boone stood thoughtful for a moment, then left the steak where it was and filled his plate with the same food Maya had on hers before making his way to the table, taking the seat opposite her.

He was about to dig into his food when a memory caught him off guard. He looked pensively at Maya, watching her eat as he remembered Carla's similar reaction to meat when she was pregnant with their child. He turned pale and placed his fork slowly and gently back down onto the table as he felt his body tense with anger, his wide-eyed gaze fixed on Maya, who seemed to notice his change in attitude after a few bites of her meal.

"What is it?" she asked, frightened by his expression.

"They…didn't…. mistreat you…did they?" he asked hesitantly, feeling his heart sinking.

"What? Who? What are you talking about Craig?" she questioned.

"The Legionaries. When you were kidnapped. They didn't…force themselves on you, did they?"

Maya could see that vein in his scalp begin to appear. He was angry.

"No!" she answered truthfully, taking one of his hands in hers to re-assure him, "No, they didn't rape me. They were just jerks and spoke inappropriately with me. Where is this coming from?" she furrowed her brow as she studied his face for hints of an answer.

Boone sighed in relief, and felt his tense body relax. "It's nothing…It's stupid. Forget I even said anything" he shook his head.

"Hey" Maya shook his hand, bringing his gaze back up to hers, "You know I tell you everything. Nothing's stupid, tell me what made you think that" she insisted.

He took off his beret and placed it on the side next to him, looking a bit confused himself, "It's just, you looked like you were disgusted by the food"

Maya nodded, "Yeah, I was disgusted by the meat" she said as she took a mouthful of food, "Is that wrong?"

Boone shook his head, "No, it's… I remembered that Carla used to avoid meat when she was pregnant. Just the smell of it cooking would send her gagging" he smiled.

Then it all made sense to Maya. She nodded in understanding and smiled at Boone, "Well you can thank my new-found vegetarianism to one of the assholes who kidnapped me" she chuckled, "He dropped a raw piece of meat in the cart for me to eat. I could still smell the poor creature's blood and guts for days after that" she shuddered as the memory came flooding back.

"Good thing I didn't pick up the steak then" Boone smiled, "From now on I won't eat meat either".

Maya looked surprised, "Oh, Boone that's sweet of you but…you don't have to do it just because I am" she insisted, but Boone shook his head adamantly.

"No, I'll eat what you eat. Don't want you to recoil away from me in disgust" he said letting the last sentence slip without even thinking, making his ears turn bright red.

"Oh, are you expecting us to dance cheek to cheek anytime soon?" Maya teased him, her cheeks blushing.

"More like stumbling from side to side" he joked, taking an opportunity he normally wouldn't, but it seemed like the right thing to say in the moment.

And then it happened…

Maya flashed him a smile, got out of her chair and reached her right hand out to him as Nat King Cole started playing in the background…

"Why not?" she said happily, "It's been a while since someone's stood on my feet".

A wave of dizzying happiness, fear, and uncertainty passed through him, and Boone was left stammering. "I uh… No, it's okay…we're eating, I'm not much…I don't dance", but Maya insisted. Reluctantly and with clammy hands, he took her hand in his and allowed himself to be manipulated by her into a semi-proper stance as he scanned the area to make sure no one was watching him make a fool of himself.

Maya's laugh brought him back to his senses. "What?" he asked, "Just making sure no one sees me step on your toes".

 _'Love me as though there were no tomorrow; Oh my darling, love me; don't ever let me go'_

As they stumbled, joked and laughed in their silliness and rough attempt at dancing, Boone was left feeling convinced of one thing: Maya was an expert at keeping his heart beating. And that without her, he was sure it would simply stop…


	28. Chapter 29: Wasteland Justice

For two days, White was locked and abandoned in a dark concrete and steel bar reinforced makeshift cell in the basement of the McCarren airport. It must have been a storage room before he was thrown in, it wreaked of bleach and cleaning fluid. Now after more than 48 hours it was overpowered by other odours…  
White didn't even have enough room to lie down without bending his knees slightly. There was a bucket of stagnant water for him to drink, and another for… well, "storage"…  
He was still covered almost head to toe in the caked blood of his victim – Alerio. The image of his death and the gurgling sounds he made as he desperately tried to cling to life, aspirating his own blood, eyes wide as he realised he was drowning in it, were fresh in White's mind. He had no desire to kill the man he had collaborated with over so many years, yet he was offered no alternative. If he was allowed to live, word of White's actions were certain to spread to the remnants of the Legion. White knew there was a Legionary mole inside the McCarren base; he wasn't about to tip his hat and give that faex the information he'd need to run to his filius cannis superior. His lips crept into a sneer.

A clicking sound of metal on metal in front of him snapped him back to the reality he was trapped in. It sounded like the lock was being jimmied with hairpins. Whoever they were, they were making quick time getting through. White stood up and pressed his back against the wall, bracing himself for what was to come next.

 _'Must be that bastard come to finish the job'_ White thought in anxious anticipation. This was also his chance to escape.

Finally, with a dull click the lock was undone and the door swung back, flooding the tiny room with piercing light the stung White's eyes. He shut them tight and with a yell he lunged himself at the silhouette blocking his path, knocking them both on the hard concrete.

"Urngh!" he heard a familiar voice grunt in surprise, followed immediately by intense impact on his jaw that made him see stars and sent a spasm down his spine. The impact was so intense it incapacitated him, almost knocking him unconscious; but White held on. If these were to be his last moments, he wanted to see his killer. Blinking, White tried to open his eyes long enough to see what was going on. The light was so intense it made his eyes water.

He could hear boots scraping on the concrete floor and panting as the one who had dealt the blow rose up above him and stood in front of the light, making it easier to see.

With a disappointed grunt, White tried to sit himself up. "What do you want? Come to kill me or gloat?"

"Take a guess" McNamara answered ominously, reaching down and grabbing White by his bloody shirt, dragging him onto his feet by and slamming him on the wall. "First, we're going to take a little walk…"

McNamara stealthily led White out of the cell block. Passing by some lockers on the way out before the training grounds, he collected a bundle of NCR clothing and hat that was stashed in an unused and busted locker and made White change into them before proceeding. If anyone recognised White they would have raised the alarm. Fortunately McNamara planned everything and so far, apart from the small tackle by White, it was going smoothly. He had observed and recorded the times for when the majority of the troops in McCarren were out on patrol and doing training exercises in the back of the airport over the past two days and made the necessary arrangements to ensure that all White and he had to do at this point was walk out of the main entrance. He also made sure that the guard who was tasked to keep a watchful eye on the corridor leading to White's filthy cell was distracted enough to leave his post. Once out, McNamara made a bee line for the derelict hotel that was on the edge of what was once Fiend territory with White in tow. Luckily for him, the NCR tended to stay away from this place. No surprise there since it was crawling with drug addicts. He marched White up on the first floor and through the door into the first room on top of the stairs.

"Get in" McNamara calmly ordered as the door creaked open.

"What? So you can do who knows what to me? No thanks" White replied.

McNamara was hoping for White to give him another excuse to hurt him, "Wrong answer" he replied and shoved White through the doorway, locking it behind them.

* * *

 _Several hours later…_

After the previous evening's dinner and drinks, Maya's head had stopped swimming and all that was left was a dull ache. The group had a small party with some other NCR troops who had recently come back from a successful patrol and had taken down the last Viper raiders that were hiding out near a Repconn building. They had also brought back some useful tech and parts that could be used to make the repairs to the Vertibird, which made Irvine grin from ear to ear. They were on the final leg of their journey to complete the mission, and if that wasn't enough reason to celebrate after everything they endured, then she didn't know what was. Home felt a lot closer now…

As Maya started to rouse from her sleep, memories of the party started to flood back to her. She and Boone had gotten a lot closer since that dance they had in the cafeteria, she remembered hanging out almost exclusively with him… or was it that Boone was deliberately staying close to her? When Maya "accidentally" mentioned Boone dancing, including the other NCR recon team, that Boone could dance, they were all in disbelief and had a friendly laugh about it over some drinks. They wanted to see a demonstration of the dance for themselves since they couldn't believe that someone as rigid as Boone could do anything other than a march. Fortunately for Boone, it was too dark for others to see his ears turn red as that was the only thing that gave him away. Though Maya did catch him grinning when no one was looking. They both declined to provide a demonstration, much to the dismay of their friends and colleagues. Although, as the evening came to an end and everyone was either passed out drunk or retired to their bunks, Boone asked Maya for another dance. She obliged, and they danced for a long while before going to Boone's tent, chatted away until they were too tired to stay awake.

"Maya, wake up" Boone's voice whispered gently above her. She grunted in acknowledgement but kept her eyes shut, listening to Boone shuffle and the springs creak as he pulled his boots and hat on before getting out of bed. "We're burning daylight".

"Uurngh… 5 more minutes" Maya protested groggily, to which Boone responded by letting in the harsh late morning light into the tent. Still keeping her eyes closed, Maya slowly sat up on the bed. "Fine, I'll get up… but pass me the medkit, I need a painkiller".

Boone shuffled through his duffle bag and fished out two white pills, most likely paracetamol but she couldn't tell, there were no labels. And even if there were, it was possible that here they would be referred to as something else. He handed them to her with a bottle of water.

Boone was out of the tent first, letting Maya get up and ready at her own pace and went to get some breakfast for both of them. The grounds were busy today, with some new recruits being given a safety rundown at the barriers, others busying themselves with shifting recently delivered provisions around the camp and running drills. But something felt off…

Scanning the area he couldn't find the Brotherhood group. Normally they could be found at the canteen table just outside the food tent in conversation or having some early lunch. 'Maybe they've gone to the back of the base to get the components for the aircraft…' Boone mused. After considering the possibility, he decided to go and check their tents. If they were there he would also ask about the next plan of action. Just as he was making the corner toward Irvine's tent, he heard his name being called. It was Ramos from across the grounds. He had just come out of the airport base and was looking slightly confused.

"Boone!" Ramos yelled as he jogged towards him, "have you seen Nolan?"

Craig's could feel a lump in his stomach beginning to form. Something was up. He started a brisk walk to reach him.

"No, I assume he is making preparations for the Vertibird with Irvine?"

Ramos shook his head as he came to a stop in front of Boone. "No, I haven't seen him since last night. I was hoping you caught a glimpse of him".

This was worrying. "You checked everywhere? Could he have left the compound?"

Ramos shook his head, "I checked, he wouldn't leave without letting us know. I asked the troops as well and none of them had seen him today.

Then, as if he was kicked in the head, Boone realised the answer was somewhere in the cell where White was being kept in isolation. But he wanted to check and make sure for himself first.

"Okay, you keep looking and I will go to the back of the airport and do a thorough search" Boone answered. He wanted to make sure his suspicions were correct before he confided in others.

Ramos nodded and went back to the rest of the group to initiate a search while Boone made his way to the cell.

When he reached the basement level to check up on White, everything seemed to be fine. The guard was at his post and when Boone questioned him, he re-assured Boone that everything was secure. Boone requested that the guard give him a few moments to speak with White. As soon as the guard was out of earshot, Boone began to examine the area. He approached the door and, although it was closed, it wasn't locked. Upon opening the door, Boone was hit with a strong foul stench of stale urine and faeces that made his eyes water and his throat burn. He promptly closed the door, coughing and wiping the tears away. There were signs of a scuffle on the floor; Boone noticed a set of boot prints in the dust which must have belonged to McNamara, although he couldn't be 100% certain. He followed the scuff marks down the hallway and up a flight of stairs leading to the ground floor. Around the corner there were a couple of unused lockers, and Boone immediately spotted something. To an untrained eye and someone who isn't aware of a possible security event, it would have passed by unnoticed. Dirty grey overalls were slightly peeking through a gap in the locker. They had the same overpowering stench that was in the cell.

 _'Must have changed into something a little less conspicuous'_ he thought. The boot prints led outside into the front of the compound, and although the trail was badly scuffed by now, Boone knew it led outside the compound.

 _'What are you up to Nolan?'_ he thought. Turning back, he made his way to Maya and the others to fill them in on his findings.

* * *

"What do you mean White's escaped?!" Ramos exclaimed.

"I don't see how or why McNamara would aid that scumbag, or why you would even suggest such a thing Boone." Irvine replied somewhat confused.

Maya shook her head, "He wouldn't 'aid' him, my guess is he has taken White away to interrogate him".

"I don't know the full details of what happened. I just know that the evidence suggests that someone smuggled White out of the base. The fact that McNamara is missing is suspicious, however it's possible that we have a Legionary mole in the base and they could have taken both of them." Boone replied calmly, "I suggest Ramos, Irvine and I go and scout out the area outside the base. Three people will be able to cover more ground than one".

Ramos and Irvine nodded. The three of them collected their weapons, some water to keep them hydrated in the hot early afternoon, and set out of the airbase.

* * *

"Where is it?!" McNamara spat in anger, shaking his right hand to help disperse the pain from the last punch that landed squarely on White's jaw. White, tied to a wooden chair in the bathroom, his head lolled to the side and bloody drool dripping down his mouth, somehow managed to speak.

"Now, Nolan, if you break my jaw then how do you expect our little conversations to continue?"

"Then tell me how to get to the Vault! Tell me where my people are being kept"

White looked away in dread, "I can't…".

McNamara was losing patience, "Why the hell not?". They were gone for several hours now, someone back at the base was bound to notice his absence. By this point is was highly unlikely that he would be able to sneak White back into his cell.

White looked up pathetically at McNamara, "If I say anything, they will kill me".

"If you don't give me the information that I want, I will kill you myself." McNamara seethed.

"You don't understand. I'd rather be killed by you, than face a death at their hands" White answered, a terrified look in his eyes, "So do what you must, I welcome death".

For the first time, McNamara felt pity for White. He was obviously close to breaking.

"I promise you that if you tell us where these bastards are, they won't get the chance. You would be kept in a secure cell with round the clock guards." He tried to re-assure him. And after this whole fiasco is over and done with, White would have to stand trial for his crimes. Undoubtedly his sentence would be an execution, but if he co-operated the sentence would be more…lenient.

But White shook his head adamantly, "No! They have eyes everywhere! They can see and hear everything I say. Just get it over with and kill me!" he yelled.

"Very well…" McNamara resigned, "If that is your decision" and he dealt a heavy blow to White's head, knocking him out cold.

He walked out of the bathroom and sat down on the decrepit bed, feeling and hearing the springs strain under the weight. Nursing his hand, he realised it was starting to sting. Looking down he couldn't help but grimace at the sight of his busted knuckles, oozing dark red blood that dripped onto the rank brown carpet, adding to the multitude of stains that afflicted it.

"Fuck…" he whispered, rubbing his sore eyes. At least he found out two things from this whole ordeal: one was that the elaborate story that he told Maya was true, and second was that his Brotherhood group was not killed in the explosion. They were alive, and that brought McNamara some comfort; however, he had no idea where they were being kept. If only he could get White to talk…

A heavy knock on the door behind him made McNamara jump and reach for his gun, his heart pounding in his ears.

"Hello?" a familiar voice called, "McNamara, are you in there?"

It was Irvine. McNamara let out a sigh of relief. He knew that he was bound to be discovered, but wasn't certain whether he should let them know...

"McNamara?" Irvine persisted.

"To hell with it" he whispered and in three long strides reached the door and pulled a bewildered Irvine inside.

"Does anyone else know where I am?" he questioned his pilot, swiftly shutting the door.

"N-no sir, we split up to cover more ground to find you" Irvine stuttered.

"Who's we?"

"Ramos, Boone, and myself" Irvine replied, "but, Maya and Ibsen know you're missing as well. They're back at Camp McCarran".

McNamara sighed in frustration, "I guess there's no hiding it now".

"Sir… what are you doing here? Did you help White escape?"

McNamara pointed at the bathroom and Irvine hesitantly went and peeked inside. He looked horrified.

"Is he dead?"

"No, just knocked out" McNamara shook his head, picking up his satchel and taking out some bandages for his knuckles. He ordered his pilot to go and find Boone and Ramos and bring them to the room so he could explain what had happened. Irvine nodded and hurried out. McNamara didn't have to wait long.

* * *

"Hold on a minute, what is our next plan?!" Ramos blurted out while McNamara was mid sentence explaining to them why he had kidnapped White, "That guard you distracted is bound to find out that White's missing, and there's no way for us to get him back into that cell this time of day".

McNamara exhaled loudly, annoyed at how complicated the situation had become.

"The NCR is looking to execute him, Nolan" Irvine added, "If they even think that you were trying to help him, they'll arrest you".

"Why wait then?" Boone asked, taking out his 9mm pistol from his holster and switching the safety off.

"Craig, we're not executing him! He still has information that I need to find my people" McNamara blocked the door to the bathroom.

"What good is he if he doesn't want to talk?" Boone replied, his voice almost cold, not betraying any signs of emotion.

"He was close to talking, he's practically broken now. The only reason he's hesitant to talk is because he's afraid they'll find and kill him".

McNamara could see Boone struggling with this, and he was right. Boone would not have hesitated to kill White himself. The only thing that was stopping him was knowing that if he killed him in his cell, the NCR would have issued a reprimand on him; probably request his resignation from 1st Recon. That's all he had left…

After almost a minute, Boone relented. "Fine… But this doesn't change anything" he said, holstering his gun.

They decided that the best course of action would be to return to Camp McCarren and take White back with them. McNamara would take full responsibility for his actions, explain what had happened, and White would be taken to the doctor for treatment. The four of them packed up their things, untied the still unconscious White from the chair and left for the base.

To their surprise, a half dozen NCR troops were waiting for them in front of the entrance to the base…with a disappointed looking Colonel Hsu.

"I expect you had your reasons for this little…excursion" he said, studying them critically, "Take the prisoner to the doctor for examination", he motioned to two guards, "and I want all three of you in my office right now".


	29. Chapter 30: Time For A Reunion

**_***3 days later***_**

Irvine and Ibsen were patiently waiting for McNamara and Boone outside of Col. Hsu's office. McNamara and Boone had "served their time" in a makeshift jail on the first floor inside the airport, and everyone was getting antsy to leave, especially now knowing that most of the Hidden Valley BOS members were alive.

"What's taking them so long?" Irvine muttered impatiently, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, "Thought the Col. got the speeches out of the way last time".

Considering the crime their Elder had committed, he was being let off easy. Irvine was not going to start complaining now.

"Could have been a lot worse. They could have locked them up for 3 months…" Ibsen raised an eyebrow at Irvine, who waved his comment away. He got the point though…

A rusty screech from the door hinge brought them both to attention as McNamara and Boone quickly stepped out of the room and explained the situation.

"Unfortunately, due to my rash actions, we're…not welcome here anymore" McNamara explained.

"We have to be out of the base before nightfall" Boone added, making his way outside.

"Hang on, where are you going?" McNamara called out, "He meant the Brotherhood is no longer welcome, not you".

Boone shrugged, "I'm in this 'til the end. I'll start getting our stuff, you prep the Vertibird. We'll be out before sundown. We've already wasted too much time here; it's time to move on".

McNamara sighed, partly relieved that Boone decided to stick around. If they were going to get his people back, he would need a sniper who could cover their back.

"Nolan, there's been a bit of a development", Ibsen began hesitantly, filling McNamara in on the events that had transpired.

With their relations with the NCR now strained, McNamara and his group needed to be careful with everything they did, as well as figure out a way to get access to White. Without him, there was no way they could find their missing brothers and sisters. They had to think of something…fast.

* * *

"You did what?!" McNamara's voice strained as he tried to keep his voice down as Maya filled him in on her recent "activities".

"If I didn't, White would probably be dead by now", Maya replied in defence. After explaining everything that had transpired over the course of their incarceration, McNamara was even more agitated. The tension in his body language was almost palpable. "Don't worry! He's fine now" she reassured him.

McNamara gazed at her worryingly, "It could have been a suicide implant…what if it was an explosive? It could have killed you".

"It wasn't, it didn't!" Maya said, exasperated. She didn't want to fight with him, not after he just got out. "Nolan, everything's fine. In fact, everything that happened might work in our favour".

Despite his concern at the risk she took, McNamara was impressed with her quick thinking and was curious to know more. "How so?" he asked.

Taking a deep breath, Maya described the events exactly as they occurred, and how she picked up on the abnormal behaviour of one soldier: Johnson. She went on to clarify her suspicions and how she believed he was a spy for the Legion, giving information to occurrences that took place within the base and her own observations over the past couple of days. McNamara listened and absorbed all the information she presented, formulating a strategy in his mind. He was surprised to admit but, Maya was right… this was exactly what they needed. If they could find out who the spy was, they could strike a deal with Hsu to let them have White.

"So, what are your thoughts?" Maya finished, meeting McNamara's eyes confidently.

After mulling the information over in his mind, McNamara nodded, "If this is to hold any water, you'll need evidence…find some proof so that we may be able to present it to Hsu".

"Y-you mean … this is my task?" Maya asked hesitantly.

"You made valid points Maya. I'm sorry for my hasty reaction earlier…" he admitted. "I am ultimately responsible for your safety. If it wasn't for me and my actions, you'd still be safe back at home instead of here, putting yourself at risk". He averted his gaze from her, feeling the guilt that had been building since they met bubbling to the surface. "That is why I sometimes react the way I do..."

Maya stood in silence for a moment, studying him. She was beginning to understand why he behaved the way he did with Boone in the beginning and why he sometimes seemed overprotective. "I understand. Don't blame yourself, I've also played a hand in this. If it wasn't for my experiments…well….I'd probably still be back in my time leading an ordinary, and thoroughly uninteresting life" Maya smiled up at him, trying to lighten the mood and make McNamara feel better, "My father used to say that shit happens, what matters is how you deal with the problem".

Nolan nodded and directed his gaze back to her, "So, it seems to me you have a clear-cut mission ahead. You proposed this, you have more information than anyone here" McNamara cocked his head slightly to one side and placed a hand on her shoulder, "and don't worry, you won't be doing this alone. You have us as back up just in case, we'll keep a close eye on everything" he smiled. "I'd better go inform Hsu about this, maybe it'll help get us back in his good graces".

Maya watched McNamara make his way to Hsu's office, leaving her alone with her thoughts to contemplate what just happened. Rooted in place, she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. For the first time she felt like a true part of the team – she contributed, gathering intelligence, made strategic decisions, and now was about to embark on her first assignment. All she had to do now was wait until nightfall.

 _'Maybe one day I'll be a Brotherhood scout'_ , she thought amusingly.

* * *

It was gone 1AM when Maya finally heard footsteps echoing in the airport. She had positioned herself behind a battered diner bench with a tall back, her spine pressing against the wooden panel as she heard the footsteps wander past her, her right hand resting on her sheathed combat knife. Luckily the area was strewn with broken chairs and tables, so she was easily hidden. Maya had been waiting in that spot for a little over three hours, almost drifting off to sleep once and fighting off pins and needles in her legs.

Peering behind the many table and chair legs, she watched Johnson walk down the hallway and to one of the exit doors. As soon as he was out and the doors closed behind him, she crept out of her hiding spot and hurried as fast as possible without making too much noise. Gently pushing the bar of the door forward, she surveyed the area.

It was clear. Johnson was still in view, he was heading up to one of the communication towers at the end of the runway. Maya followed, keeping to the shadows and hiding underneath the aircraft where she could. She stopped about 50 meters away from him and watched as he flipped a keyboard down and entered in a password in a computer secured to the wall next to the entrance door.

 _'Hmm…. this is going to be tricky_ ' she thought, feeling her hands getting clammy. She dared not walk up right behind him and watch the keys as he typed them in. There was bound to be another way…

The door opened and Johnson strolled inside. As the door started to close, Maya made a dash for it to try to catch it before it shut. Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough.

"Damn it!" she hissed under her breath, feeling her cheeks flush with frustration. "Okay, think…" she looked at the computer for a moment and it dawned on her. Ibsen had shown her a trick when they first met. There was a program installed on the PipBoy that would allow Maya to hack a computer. The only problem was that Maya had never tried it out herself.

She quickly pulled out a retractable plug from her PipBoy and connected it to the computer in the wall. Flicking through the programs on her device, she finally found the correct one and uploaded the software to the computer. A minute went by… two… after almost five minutes Maya was sweating bullets. Panic had set in and her hands were starting to shake. Fortunately though, Ibsen's program was able to circumvent the locking mechanism and the alarm. The door opened with an almost inaudible "click" and Maya grabbed the handle as she crouched low and walked through.

She heard the frequency of a radio being tuned in and a voice just barely coming through the speaker. Looks like she didn't miss the conversation. Maya made herself comfortable on the floor at the foot of the stairs, listening in on the secrets being unfolded…

McNamara's knee was bouncing with apprehension as he sat on one of the benches outside where all the aircraft were stored, his hands clasped together resting between his legs as he hunched over trying to see if he could spot Maya. She had entered the tower almost an hour ago and McNamara was starting to have doubts.

 _'I shouldn't have let her do this'_ he thought as his worst fears started flashing through his mind.

"The door's opening" he heard Irvine through his portable radio, "She's alright, looks like she wasn't spotted".

McNamara exhaled deeply and got to his feet. Spotting her, he waited for her to come to him at the bench. But as soon as she was close enough for him to see the expression on her face, he knew something was wrong.

"What is it?"

Maya shook her head and didn't stop to give him an update, but proceeded back inside the airport. "We have to leave, now!" she said urgently.

Without hesitation, McNamara walked with her to Hsu where she described the alarming information she collected from the spy – that there was a massive Legion force waiting at Nellis Airforce Base.

Hsu's eyes widened, "That's not possible, that's Boomer territory".

"This is what I heard" Maya asserted, "The base was captured recently, almost a fortnight ago. They are planning a final push. This is it." Then she paused for a moment, realising what this new information meant and the gravity of the situation, "They're throwing everything they have into this…"

Hsu turned a shade of grey and looked as if he was going to pass out, "How this could have happened? Nobody could have infiltrated that base. Anyone who tries is blown to high heaven". Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.

"You need to get your people ready Col." McNamara insisted, "Call reinforcements, tell them to send everyone they can. Camp McCarren must not fall".

Hsu nodded, leaning his elbows on the table and running his fingers through his hair, knocking his cap off. "Do not trouble yourself, this base will not fall to the Legion. I will make certain of that", he stood up abruptly and made his way to his personal communication radio, "Right now you all need to leave and let me deal with this. Guards!" he called the two soldiers stationed outside his office, who responded immediately to their Colonel's call, "Go to the tower and place Johnson under arrest!"

"What about White? You agreed to release him to us if we gave you the mole" McNamara insisted.

Hsu agreed and waved them away as he placed a communication request with his superiors through his radio.

Maya and McNamara made their way to the Vertibird, where the rest of the group was already hauling their bags into the craft. As the minutes passed, it looked like the news was spreading as more and more NCR soldiers began leaving their tents and rushing to get to their tasks. A frail looking White was escorted out to them in chains by half a dozen NCR troopers.

Maya could hear Ramos's concerned conversation with the pilot as he hauled their bags onto the craft.

"Irvine, will the landing gears hold without a hydraulic replacement?" Ramos called.

"Should do, as long as I keep our landings nice and gentle" Irvine replied, half distracted by the pre-flight checks he was in the process of doing.

By now the base was on high alert and the sound of NCR boots on tarmac gave Maya goosebumps. There was no way that the Legion would win against a force such as the NCR.

White was secured in the craft between Ramos and Boone, his wrists and ankles handcuffed so he couldn't make an escape, while Maya was sat opposite them with McNamara and Ibsen. The Vertibird's engines whined to life and as the throttling of the blades became almost deafening, Maya saw Boone lean in and whisper something in White's ear. It seemed to amuse him as White turned to face Boone, who was staring at him with deadly intent, and grinned as if it was nothing of importance.

As soon as they got to altitude and a few kilometres out of McCarren, McNamara got up and undid White's seat harness, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.  
"Tell me where your superiors are holding my brothers and sisters, or we drop you off right here", he said as he leaned him toward the open door of the craft.

"If you drop me off here, then you'll never find out where your people are" White answered, "But, luckily for you, now I can tell you".

McNamara examined him sceptically, "Really? And all it took was a little trip in the VertiBird for you to open up? If I knew you were that afraid of heights I would have done this sooner" he mocked.

White chuckled, "I didn't tell you before because my superiors were listening in on our little conversations, dull as they were. Luckily, during our last chat, you knocked out my transceiver implant. It was collecting and relaying visual and audio information from my ocular and auditory sensor implants. Now I can lead you right to the base without them knowing". Smiling, he craned his head to look at Maya. "I think it's time you and Daniel had that reunion now".

Maya stared at him wide eyed, surprised and speechless. "Nolan, we shouldn't trust him" she warned, breaking her gaze away from White and looking up at the Elder, "This could be a trap, the doctors didn't know what the purpose of that implant was, but even if it is what he's saying…we should be wary".

McNamara nodded in agreement and pushed White back into his seat, "Where do we go?"

"The Capitol of course" White answered, "I suggest we land in Bethesda, there is a service tunnel that will lead us into a classified train line tunnel. From there we can hack into one of the terminals and catch a train directly to the Vault".

"No, that's too risky" McNamara answered, "we will be detected before the train even arrives"

"I could try to hack the terminal system and bypass the security" Ibsen chimed in, but McNamara shook his head. This was too great a risk, they needed another way in.

"I am not going to waltz in and knock on the front door. Even if we somehow got past their security system, we would have to get through the vault door. And I doubt anyone could hack their way through that. No…. we need another way in".

"Ventilation tunnels" Ramos added, "Every Vault has them, we'll just have to figure out where they are and how to get through the filtration system".

Now they were onto something!

"How much fuel do we have Irvine?" McNamara asked his pilot.

"Enough to get us to Bethesda and back again. There is a Brotherhood aircraft station where we can replenish our fuel in the Capitol though, so no need to worry about that" Irvine replied and set a course for their new destination as his passengers settled in for a long six-hour flight.

It was gone 6PM when Ibsen finally detected what looked like an air duct leading several hundred feet below the surface of the Capitol just outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. They were not completely certain that this was what they were looking for as it was relatively small and looked like it was out of order for a good couple of years; however, Ibsen speculated that it was connected to a service tunnel that lead to the train line tunnel. If so, their plan was to hack a terminal to disable security and call up a train, then place a tracking device in the train that would go directly to the Vault entrance and allow them to pinpoint its location. After that, they would have to improvise and find a way inside through one of the ventilation shafts without getting sliced by the fans in the process. But that would have to wait until the morning.

After being awake for over 24 hours, the crew were feeling exhausted. Irvine had stealthily set the aircraft down in a stadium near Whittier Woods local park, where the ruins helped keep it out of sight. This meant that they all, including White, had to travel great distances on foot to explore the area. They spent the best part of the morning and afternoon trawling through the Capitol and Bethesda, fighting off more than a dozen ghouls while at the same time trying to avoid the many Brothehood patrols in the area, as well as mutants and raiders. All of them were fatigued and in much need of rest. McNamara and his small band of travellers were still on the Brotherhood's wanted list, so they couldn't simply walk up to one of the Brotherhood outposts for food and shelter. They made do with a temporary camp in an office room on the fifth floor of a dilapidated building close to the vent they found. The height gave them a good vantage point, and Boone took up position with his sniper rifle on one side while Ramos took another side with his binoculars and a rifle.

"Night is moving in fast, we'll set up here for the evening" McNamara instructed. No one argued with him, in fact there was an almost audible exhale from everyone as they dropped their things in one corner and took out their sleeping bags. Ibsen got out some pre-packaged rations and handed them out one by one to everyone. For a while they all sat rooted in place, staring into the distance eating their dry and unappealing food.

"I'll take first watch" Boone's hushed voice broke the silence, then Ramos volunteered for second and McNamara for third watch. Ibsen and Maya would take last watch. Before they settled in to sleep for the night, McNamara got out another pair of handcuffs and pulled White over to a radiator on the far side of the room.

"It's not like I'm going anywhere" Maya heard him mutter in protest of his treatment.

"You'll forgive me if I don't take your word on that", McNamara remarked sardonically as he chained his hands to the radiator pipe and chucked a military blanket at him.

Everyone had finally settled in for the night, huddled around each other in a circle just as they had done in the wasteland… except for Maya.

Their surroundings were all too creepy, and the sound of the wind whistling all around them made her feel exposed and cold. She looked over at Boone who was staring intently out of his broken window, keeping an eye on the ground beneath them and the buildings surrounding them. Maya picked up her sleeping bag and moved to sit next to him.

"What's up?" he asked softly, his gaze still fixated out of the window. When she didn't answer after almost a minute and didn't sit down he turned his attention toward her.

Maya shrugged, almost too tired to talk. "It all feels too real here…" she answered, her voice slightly hoarse. "Back in the Mojave it was different…it felt different."

"How so?" Boone asked, turning his gaze back to the outside world.

Wringing her hands gently as she leaned on the wall, Maya sighed, trying to find the best way to explain, "It's easy to lull yourself into thinking that the devastation from the war isn't as bad everywhere when we were in the desert, because although the Mojave was struck heavily, here it's…." her voice trailed off as she also gazed out of the window in sorrow, "death everywhere…everything is destroyed. This is the capital, and there's nothing left to save". She looked away, pressed her back against the wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. "The greatest military, political and diplomatic leaders couldn't stop this devastation, and I won't be able to stop this…not this".

Boone exhaled slowly, took off his sunglasses and turned to face Maya, "Maybe not, but you will never know unless you try. You have to try…". His green eyes were focused so intensely on her, yet also heartfelt, that Maya found it difficult to keep eye contact with him. It made her cheeks blush, so she nodded in agreement. She couldn't explain it, but whenever Boone looked at her she felt her heart flutter. A couple of times she secretly caught him watching her; the glances that he gave her made her giddy inside. No one else had ever made her feel that way. She thought about telling him this on more than one occasion, but it never felt like it was the right time. She was also afraid of the consequences of him finding this information out, therefore opted to hold her tongue out of fear of embarrassment and, more importantly, rejection. Someone like him would never succumb to her foolishness. Not to mention the gravity of the events waiting ahead of them, wasting time talking to Boone about this would be stupid.

 _'So stupid...'_ she thought as she cringed, chastising herself for allowing her heart to cloud and clutter her thoughts in such a time.

They shared a few moments of silence together; Maya could already hear some of her sleeping companions start to snore softly. Even Ramos was close to dozing off. After another ten minutes or so, she was beginning to feel her eyelids getting heavy.

"You should get in your sleeping bag, it'll get cold soon", Boone whispered, gently rousing Maya up enough to grab and drag it to her corner of the wall. She nodded and quietly crawled in, zipping the sides up and staying close to Boone. Just his presence there made her feel protected, knowing that his diligent watch would keep all of them safe. Her body heat quickly warmed up the sleeping bag and Maya soon dozed off into an almost dreamless sleep, with Boone and Ramos keeping a watchful lookout.

* * *

Night crept quickly upon them, the darkness engulfing the room almost too quickly to allow for their eyes to adjust to it. Between his watch of the outside world and their prisoner chained at the radiator, Boone stole a few glances to watch Maya sleep. Every time his eyes would hover over her, he remembered that dream he had of her in the yellow dress. The memory of it made his heart flutter and his stomach feel almost unsettled, only to be quelled when he looked away from her and back at the desolate and sinister world outside; the harsh reality of the situation knocking him back to the real world.

He tried to picture it in his mind: the two of them together. He imagined her reaction to him explaining the dream he had of her. She would smile, maybe laugh a little at the silliness of the events in the dream, ask for more details about it possibly, give him a hug when he described them dancing…maybe look at him with a longing, the same one that he had for her. She would embrace him, run her delicate fingers through his buzz cut blonde hair, knock his cap off. No, fuck the cap, he'd chuck it out the window and hold her tight as if it was the last embrace he'd ever have. He would smell her soft skin on his… Maybe she would kiss him…

Without realizing it, Boone's gaze drifted onto Maya until he became fixated on her. His thoughts were running wild in his mind and he felt his eyes burning. It took him a moment to realise that Ramos had noticed and was staring at him. As though feeling Ramos's eyes physically sever his gaze on Maya from across the room, Boone turned his attention to him and saw an expression he'd never seen Ramos show to anyone before. Was it pity?

Immediately Boone's softened gaze turned steely again, but not Ramos. He held Boone's now expressionless gaze and Boone realised it wasn't pity.

Ramos knew…

Without a word, he respectfully broke eye contact first, gave a slight nod, and proceeded to his watch duty of the other side of the street; leaving Boone feeling very much exposed…


	30. Chapter 31: Vault Of The Future

Everyone was awake before first light, busying themselves with organizing the method in which they would proceed with the day. The plan was for the group to split up to cover more ground and speed up their mission, with McNamara and Maya making their way back with White to their VertiBird, while Ramos, Boone, and Ibsen made their way to the air vent to explore and, if Ibsen's guess was correct, plant a tracker on the train. Once they completed their task, Irvine would fly in to collect them and they would follow the signal to its destination together.

As McNamara and his group left, Ramos saw an opportunity to speak with Boone while Ibsen had gone to the room opposite theirs to scavenge for any useful information and items. "You have to tell her" he whispered.

Without looking up from his task of checking their weapons and ammo, Boone shook his head, "Nothing to say", he replied with no hint of emotion. The flush of color to his ears and neck indicated otherwise.

Ramos scoffed, "I'm not blind, nor stupid, so do me a favor and stop patronizing me. I know you…" he stopped, considering his next words carefully, "…care for her deeply…and that you would consider her as more than a platonic friend if given the chance".

Boone stopped what he was doing and faced Ramos, his gaze barely steady behind his sunglasses. He felt some panic building in his mind and he had to consciously control his breathing to stop himself form respiring too quickly.

"I've sensed there was something there yesterday", Ramos continued, the emotion behind his eyes softening, "And I can see that… Well, there's potential there".

Although saying this information out loud was as much a shock to him as it was for Ramos confirm his speculation, he had to stop skirting around the subject and admit the fact… That he did have strong feelings for Maya.

"How long have you known?" Boone asked, keeping his voice low, fearing that Ibsen would also discover this precious information.

Ramos seemed to mull Boone's question in his mind, "Well…. the thought was almost cemented after McNamara's little hideout was destroyed and you were on the verge of bleeding out completely. Yet you wanted to go out in the middle of the night to find her. And that trek we did to catch up to her…" he paused for a moment and stared in the distance, reliving that moment in his mind again, "The only two possibilities that crossed my mind at the time were that you were out of your mind, which was a very real possibility give the circumstances… Or you were just _that_ crazy for her that you would traverse the dangers of the Mojave, risking your life, and _mine_ , to get her back", he chuckled.

Boone silently listened to Ramos, reliving the memory in his mind as well and trying to think of how he would go about telling Maya what he felt. "I wouldn't know what to say" he sighed, shaking his head, "Besides, I've got bad things coming to me. It's best I stay away from everyone when it happens".

Ramos's gaze snapped at Boone and he pulled the weapons bag away from him so he would stop and have no choice but to hear him out, "Snap out of it!" he hissed, "What's done, is done. Horrible things happened on all sides, people died, and you're not the only one who has lost loved ones". A combination of frustration and grief on his contorted face as he lifted an index finger and pointed to the heavens, "If you're worried about some sort of karmic balance, you're wasting your time. Look around you Boone! Look at the world we live in. This is our punishment. Having to live with the mistakes we make in this life and with those of our forefathers is our punishment. So stop wasting your time _and_ mine, and make a decision: either you take the chance and act on your feeling…. Or don't. But I promise you, if you don't…eventually the guilt of your inaction will find you as well, and then you'll be even more depressed and miserable than you already are".

His words made Boone take half a step back. This was unexpected and uncharacteristic of Ramos, but his message did affect him. And he was right… Living with the mistakes he made was punishment enough. "I never thought of it that way. Always expected something…more final. But maybe it is" he nodded.

Ramos chortled, "Did you expect to go out with a bang, an ultimate blaze of glory?".

"Hmph, something like that" the corner of Boone's mouth curved upwards slightly at the thought of it. "Just one question: why are you insisting I tell her. You know that it won't change anything, she still has to go back".

Ramos exhaled, slightly less frustrated, "Because we can never know what will happen in the future. And I know all too well the feeling of a missed opportunity to tell someone you love them", he threw the bag roughly back at Boone who managed to catch it without letting any loose bullets escape, "You're a good man Boone, and Maya knows this. Maybe telling her will make a difference, maybe not. Do what you want, but if I was in the same situation you are right now, I wouldn't be wasting my time brooding over what if's. Time's short, we must make every second count." With his closing words, he picked up his bag, swinging it over his shoulder he strode into the next room to find Ibsen, who was taking a lot longer than usual; leaving Boone to consider everything that was said between them.

* * *

Ibsen had managed to find a few metro tokens in one of the office rooms that looked like it belonged to a manager. He had also found some interesting information on a still functioning computer console, a password of some kind, though there was no explanation what is was for. Using his PipBoy he copied the data from the console, just in case they needed it.

They made it to the vent and all three had another look around within about a thirty to forty-foot radius, checking doors and an underground parking area; but their search came up with nothing. Getting back up to the surface where the vent was, a thought crossed Ibsen's mind.

"Let's check for any subway or metro entrances" he instructed, "I found some travel tokens in one of the office rooms where we camped. It must be around here somewhere". He had marked the location of the vent on his PipBoy so that they could always find their way back to that location, even if they were underground.

Sure enough, almost half a mile away they found what they were looking for. Soon they were deep underground snaking their way through the passages until they reached a dead end. They were only about 50 meters from the point on Ibsen's map, but they had to find another way to get to it. Boone spotted a locked door and, taking out a bobby pin, proceeded to try to unlock it, using the skills Courier Six taught him long ago.

"Got it" he muttered, hearing a click as the lock retracted. They proceeded inside and down a couple of flights of stairs, reaching a long hallway that took them to a computer password protected door.

"What do you think the odds are that the password I saved from that office will work on this?" Ibsen asked absentmindedly as he flicked through his PipBoy searching for it.

"Extremely low" Ramos answered as Ibsen entered in the password. They heard several locking mechanisms detach as the password was accepted by the system and the door swung open with a low moan, leading directly into a train line tunnel. "Or just, you know, forget whatever I said" he retorted sarcastically. They quickly found a terminal in what appeared to be an inconspicuous broom closet.

"Seems odd to have a terminal like this with random information on it" McNamara mused as he scanned through the entries. There was one folder he couldn't get open.

"It's not random…It's code" Ibsen commented, taking control of the keyboard. It took him some time to find the correct pattern as he had to refer to some of the data he had saved on his PipBoy, but eventually he found the correct input, hacked into the security system and disabled it, and called up a train. They quickly completed their task, checked that the tracker was active and monitored it as the train departed. So far everything was going to plan…

They got back up to the surface to rendezvous with Irvine and the others. With Ibsen directing them where to go, they were all well on their way to what would hopefully be the final leg of their mission.

* * *

"This is it!" Ibsen tapped Irvine on the shoulder, pointing to where the tracker stopped moving. They had flown almost 100 miles North of the Capitol.

"Hanover?" Maya asked, confused, "The Vault is in…Hanover?"

Ibsen checked his PipBoy again and looked slightly amused, "So it is". Although it initially confused her, the location did make sense. It was practically in between some of the greater cities, and it was far enough away in an inconspicuous area that it would have escaped much of the devastation that the neighboring cities and states did when the bombs fell.

They set down about a mile outside of where the signal was coming from, picked up all the weapons they could carry, along with some explosives in a backpack in case things got really hairy, and set off toward the blip on the PipBoy. McNamara was at the front with White and Ibsen, followed by Ramos and Boone and Maya taking the rear. The group wasn't very talkative, but Boone hardly said a word to Maya since they chatted the previous evening. She turned to observe him at him and noticed that he looked a bit stiff.

"Need some help with those?" she reached down to take the backpack from his left hand, making him finch.

"Uh no, it's alright, I got it" he answered curtly, feeling his throat go dry.

"You okay?" Maya asked. Boone caught the concern in her tone but couldn't meet her gaze. He was still considering whether he should tell her about how he felt. The soldier him was convinced that it wouldn't do or change anything, especially if his present was going to be erased when Maya returned to her time; but the human side knew that Ramos was correct and that he didn't want to have any more regrets in his life, especially if he was to be wiped from existence, and was bursting to tell her. even if it meant rejection or with a high probability that when all of this was over they would never see each other again.

 _'I have to tell her'_ he pushed the doubts out of his mind.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm alright" he nodded. The lump in his throat grew as he was considering his next words. "Though here is something that I really need to speak with you about."

"Craig you're worrying me" she replied, apprehension growing in her voice, "Please tell me what's bothering you".

Boone met her worried gaze and smiled as he shook his head, "Don't, it's nothing bad. But it's not something I wish to say around others, let alone when we're pre-occupied with a mission". His words seemed to quell her concern. She smiled and nodded, feeling much better knowing that whatever Boone wanted to speak with her about was nothing serious. But she did have a question…

"Can I ask you something?" she turned her focus to Boone, who nodded, "When we were in McCarren, before we took off, you leaned in and said something to White. What did you tell him?"

"That when this is all over, so is his life" …

* * *

"What's taking so long?!" McNamara hissed at Ibsen, who was wiping sweat away from his brow. Things were not exactly going to plan…

"There is no way for me to stop the system, it's impossible!" Ibsen spat back, thoroughly aggravated by the situation he was placed in.

"He's right, the air filtration system cannot be stopped by trying to hack it. The only two options we have are to create a massive EMP by detonating a small nuke, which will definitely give our position away…or manually stop the system by creating a mechanical failure, which is unlikely to happen as there are safeguards against this kind of tampering and again if we're not spotted, we would definitely make ourselves heard" Maya added as she examined her own PipBoy and reviewed the collected data on the system. "We need an alternative, there has to be something".

"The Emergency Embarkation Tube, over there" White chimed in, staring off in the opposite direction and pointing to the location where they were supposed to go.

Maya could see the rage in McNamara's face, but she didn't expect the sudden and violent reaction that followed. McNamara strode over to White and swung a punch to his jaw so hard that Maya thought he had broken his jaw. White was sent sprawling on the ground, dazed and with a fresh bruise already brewing on the right side of his face.

"You son of a bitch! Why didn't you say anything _sooner_?!" McNamara yelled, his face contorted with anger.

"You didn't ask" White groaned, nursing his jaw, "you had already formulated a plan of ingress _without_ consulting the one person who might actually _know_ how to get inside", he turned his face away from them but Maya saw him spit blood, "You must feel pretty stupid now". McNamara resisted the urge to hit him again as Ramos got him back on his feet and they proceeded in the direction where White had pointed to.

"If this is a trap, I will eviscerate you and leave you to the ferals", McNamara warned him, which only made White snicker. Although he would never trust White, there was a voice in the back of his mind that told him they had no other options.

Reaching a large dried up gully about a half mile away, White led them to what looked like a industrial metal waste extraction pipe that was at least six feet wide in diameter, hidden behind a wild overgrowth of dead vegetation. Climbing inside, Maya and Ibsen turned on the torches on their PipBoy's and spotted a door at the very back, some thirty feet away. Boone managed to pick the lock with some help from Ramos and they quickly filed inside a long corridor.

"Doesn't look like this place gets much footfall", Ibsen commented as they took a look around. The hallway was dark with only red emergency lighting providing minimal illumination. At the end of the hallway the path was split into different corridors that lead into darkened, unused lab rooms.

"These must be abandoned laboratories, from before the war" Maya guessed out loud. White nodded in confirmation.

"These were used as quarantine rooms for those stricken with radiation when the war broke out" he added, "Now, they're just part of a forgotten history…".

Ibsen walked over to one of the computer controls at the end of the corridor and connected his PipBoy to it, illuminating his face with a green light as the screen flickered to life. "Hmm…interesting" he murmured.

"What is it?" Boone asked walking up to him, followed closely by Maya.

"I've just accessed the records, and it looks like this entire floor was dedicated to the study and production of various pathogens… there's several entries which discuss the FEV virus and… no, this can't be…"

"What?" Maya craned her neck around him and Boone to try to see, but it was no use, she was too short.

" _Enhancing_ the virus…making it more potent, and more likely to create extreme levels of mutation in an exposed subject"

"How extreme are we talking?" Boone asked.

They could see Ibsen's eyes widen as his gaze moved over the text, "VERY extreme…we're talking about the creation of Behemoths…and bigger".

"What the actual fuck are you all doing?" Ramos hissed, "You're supposed to be finding a way inside, not stop to read their diary".

"Fine! Just…give me a minute" Ibsen waved Ramos away, scanning the other entries for the information they needed. "Here…There is a service elevator down the hall to our right. It will take us ten floors down to what looks like a goods storage room. I'm downloading the map now."

"That service elevator has been decommissioned and the doors have been welded shut. As far as I know, that is the only way in" White commented.

Ramos looked over at Boone, "Good thing we brought some explosives with us".

They made it to the elevator and Ramos was lowered down using some rope they brought with them ten floors down. After securing the explosives in place and arming them, the group pulled him back up before they detonated. Even at ten floors above, the sound was almost deafening, a kawoosh of smoke and dust funnelled through the elevator shaft almost knocked them off their feet. Maya was certain that the sound had alerted someone, and sure enough McNamara, Boone, and Ramos propelled themselves down the shaft using the rope and pulley system they rigged up to ensure that they had an opening to get through and to eliminate anyone who could sound an alarm. That left Maya, Ibsen, and White waiting at the top for confirmation. Being this close to White without McNamara, Ramos, or Boone close by made Maya uneasy; White seemed to notice.

"I won't harm you", he said, turning his gaze toward her which made her feel even more uncomfortable. She turned and her gaze briefly met his, startling her. His expression was sincere, no malice or anger behind those sunken eyes. It was almost like she was looking at another person. Shaking her head, she remembered all the God awful things they went through because of him; she wasn't going to allow herself to be manipulated by him.

"I doubt that. You've already harmed me, and countless others", she retorted sarcastically, "I doubt you even know what kindness is…"

"That's not entirely accurate" White responded, maintaining his gaze on her.

"All clear, come down," McNamara's voice echoed from the shaft. White went first, followed by Maya and Ibsen. Although the room they were in was damaged somewhat from the explosion, it looked to be in almost pristine condition. As they made their way through, with White leading them at the front through various corridors and rooms, Maya was in awe of the engineering and the state of the vault. The white glossy floors with a light honeycomb pattern on them, reflecting the bright lights from the ceiling, she had never been in a room or location this elaborate in her time before. They passed some rooms with flat touch screen computer panels on the walls next to doors, indicating what type of materials and cargo was being stored in each room.

"Is anyone just a little creeped out about this?" Ramos whispered, keeping his gun pointed in front of him as they walked through, "This seems too easy. Where are the guards?"

White led them down a dead end corridor and stopped in front of the door. "You should put away your weapons".

McNamara pointed a gun at the base of his skull, "I came here to get my people back, if I have to I will shoot to kill anyone on this base; and if this is a trap, you will be the first one to die, right here", he threatened.

White placed his thumb on the thumb scanner and the doors slid open with a gentle hiss. "You are safe here. There are no guards because Dr. Hadden wishes to meet with you. All of you".

"I knew this was a trick" Boone sneered, pointing his loaded rifle at White, but before he had a chance to act on anything they were all incapacitated by a shrill sound coming from the speaker above their heads. They dropped to their knees and one by one succumbed to the effects of the sound. The last thing Maya saw as her vision began to fade and she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness was White standing over them and a faded silhouette of a man walking up behind him. Just before everything went dark, a familiar voice made her heart soar.

 _"Good work Logan, thank you for bringing Maya back to me…"_

* * *

Boone woke with a start, like a jolt of electricity went through his body. A searing pain pulsated in his head, making him wince and clutch his temples, rubbing them to relieve the throbbing pain.

"Ah! ... Fuck…" he muttered hoarsely, desperately blinking tears out of his eyes that were hindering his vision. Although his vision was blurry, he could tell he was in a brightly lit and clean room, and he felt a strangely soft yet firm mattress under his body. _'Must have moved us when we were unconscious'_ he thought.

"Here" a voice in the corner made him jump out of the bed and swing to face a blurry dark silhouette of a man, bringing his arms and legs into a fighting stance, "This will help with the pain".

"Where am I?!" Boone demanded, his voice threatening. The world was slowly starting to come back into focus and he could distinguish a man about his height with greying hair and bronze horn-rimmed glasses in a smart and immaculate dark grey suit.

"Relax Boone, no one is going to harm you" the man's voice was calm and considerate, "There are no enemies to fight here" he stood up, picked up a crystal clear glass of sparkling clear liquid and walked up to Boone, reaching it out to him.

"You really think I'm that stupid?" Boone sneered as his vision came back but his head still ached painfully, "I won't drink any of your _poison_ ".

Daniel shrugged and raised the glass to his lips, "Suit yourself" he took a couple of gulps before continuing, "But it is really good sparkling spring water. You must have some, it will relieve your headache". He handed the glass back to Boone, with the glass now half full.

Boone eyed him and the drink and reached hesitantly for it, cupping it in his hand with some scepticism. Eyeing the cascading bubbles that were emanating from within the liquid, he had no idea what to expect its effects would be on him, but Daniel seemed to be fine. Raising the glass to his lips, he tasted the liquid warily. It was cool, slightly tangy and crisp as though a citrus fruit was dipped in it briefly, and the bubbles were pleasantly prickling on his tongue. But it was refreshingly clean and smooth that Boone couldn't stop himself and he downed what was left in two big gulps.

"Better?" Daniel asked, raising an eyebrow as he took the glass back. Boone nodded, slightly taken aback at the immediate effect of the drink.

"Come, let's go wait for the others to wake up" Daniel walked towards the open door, only to be blocked by Boone.

"No, you take me to them now" he demanded. Daniel shrugged and conceded to his demand, walking him over a short distance down the hall to the other guest rooms, and letting him in to check on every single one.

"You see? Everyone's unharmed, safe and sound under my protection", Daniel led him out of the guest area and into the entertainment room.

" _Your_ protection?" Boone tilted his head quizzically, "What does that mean? You are the one who kidnapped McNamara's people and destroyed their bunker!"

Daniel shook his head, "That wasn't my doing, I did not make that order". He proceeded to explain the situation on his side: how the members of the council had detected anomalous readings in the uninhabitable zone, them sending White to investigate the situation and stop anyone from tampering with whatever was causing the anomalies, and why White had captured McNamara's group. By this point McNamara himself had woken up and was demanding answers as well.

"You! Where are my people?!... What have you done to them?!" McNamara stumbled out of the room, clutching his head as Boone had done. Two guards physically pacified him while Daniel calmed him down and got him to have a glass of the same sparkling cool liquid, which he eventually drank after some coaxing. All three of them sat down in the leisure room and Daniel started to talk.

"When White first came to us, he was a Legionary spy embedded in the NCR. McNamara found him in Hidden Valley and brought him to his bunker for questioning. This all happened not very long after the incident at Helios One and where Elijah almost got his entire Brotherhood killed, so naturally McNamara was concerned with the NCR discovering their position. He sent a message to the Brotherhood in the Capitol, and an interest was taken in this individual…this spy…When word of him got to me, I became curious and started following his activities and the medical and psychological reports that were digitally recorded on him", he said, "I saw a…special potential in this man. A potential to be moulded into a useful tool. Unfortunately, after a few years the other members of the council found out about my little curiosity, and demanded that White be brought in to this vault for…. Re-programming", his voice trailed off a bit, as if he was ashamed of the memory.

"What do you mean by _re-programming_? And why would there be an interest in a man like him? He's untrustworthy, he's a spy for the Legion, he's cruel, not to mention unscrupulous. Why take an interest in a piece of shit like that?" McNamara asked.

"Because he's malleable" Daniel answered, "Because he can blend in with any faction, any crowd, he gets the job done, and most importantly because the council wanted to create a perfect spy to be their eyes and ears and go to places where they cannot gain electronic access to download information. They wanted to create their own 'scouts' that could be controlled by them at all times, and so they can listen in on conversations that never make it into a computer terminal. Fortunately White didn't get all those upgrades, so although the council could listen in to what White could speak and hear, they didn't have full physical control over him, but they could 'nudge' him into doing things he normally wouldn't do".

Boone and McNamara looked at each other, trying to contain their horror and disgust.

"But… they still controlled him, gave him verbal orders to do what they wanted?" McNamara asked.

Daniel nodded slowly, "Somewhat… As I mentioned they didn't have _complete_ control. I saw to that myself by limiting the number of implants and other….unorthodox modifications that were made to White. I knew how ruthless the members of the council are and that they would have used and abused that power over another's life and completely removed any and all sense of self from their scout. No matter who you were before, nothing justifies that level of abuse… Even if you were a Legionary. So when you crushed that implant in White's head, you severed the connection between the council and him", Daniel smiled.

"So when White ordered the eradication of Hidden Valley, did they command him to do that?" Boone questioned, his eyes narrowing, "When we found the charred identification tags of some of his people, that wasn't him?"

"No" Daniel answered bluntly, "That was the council. But I did make some additions to their message to White without them knowing…to make sure that none of your people were killed and that they were all evacuated and transferred to a safe location in the Mojave in a repurposed Vault. I believe it was Vault 34".

McNamara's eyes widened, "That's the Boomer's vault!" he said, "But… why not tell us? If you had a hand in this why didn't you make White tell us that they're okay?"

"Because the other council members were listening in, granted they didn't control White 24/7 but there was no opportunity to get the message to you" Daniel explained, leaning forward and looking at both of them, "Besides, I doubt that you would have believed the word of a man who you saw as the destroyer of your way of life _and_ everything that's happened with the Legionaries capturing Maya".

"That's something I never understood" Boone stated, "Why kidnap her and take her to a remote location in the desert?"

"They found out that you were alive and wanted to eliminate you, and what better way to do it than get two sworn enemies to fight it out and snatch a time travelling prisoner from the past to find out what she knows and maybe turn her into another one of their drones? The sniper they sent to Hidden Valley to eliminate any remnants of your Brotherhood of Steel members, and you, wasn't successful so they figured the best and easiest way was for them to eliminate all of their problems was to get two rivaling sides to get rid of each other. Fortunately for all of us, White was on our side, though he had to put on a façade and play the role that the council wanted him to. Luckily I was able to get an anonymous message to Thomas in time about a settlement needing supplies, otherwise White might have had to carry out the council's orders in full".

"That was _you_?" McNamara asked incredulously, "Huh…and I thought we were just that lucky".

Daniel chuckled, "You are, you found Maya first and therefore secured your luck", he said reclining back in his seat and crossing his legs.

"What about Lanius, what was that all about?" McNamara inquired, overcome with curiosity. Daniel cocked his head to one side, as if thinking how best to phrase his answer.

"Lanius is… Shall we say… a fascinating character, one that I've come to admire for his extreme will to survive at all costs and to do what has to be done" Daniel mulled his words, "I found out about him after the battle at Hoover Dam and have been keeping tabs on him ever since. You must have met him back at the battle?" he turned to Boone, "What did you think of him?"

Boone's expression hardened, "I wouldn't call someone who butchered innocent people a 'fascinating character'."

Daniel nodded in understanding, "I know, he has his moments of blood and gore. I followed his progress on and off over the years, and it wasn't until maybe three or four years ago that I found a use for him. I won't bore you with the specifics, but ultimately he proved to be…handy. He was exceptional when it came to getting things done, so I decided to bring him into my fold using White and his connections some time ago, mind you a very _limited_ fold as I didn't want the council to know I had a former Legate in my pocket, but he had something I wanted and I had something he wanted… so I extended a little helping hand."

"What was it?" Boone asked, "What did he want?"

Daniel shrugged and pushed his glasses that were slowly sliding down his nose back up, "What does any man who has lost the woman he loves want? To get her back of course. I'm sure you already know that before Lanius became a notoriously brutal Legate in Cesar's army, he was a notoriously brutal hunter of the Hide Bark tribe. But what you don't know is that back then he had a 'mate', her name was Quill, whom he cared for more than anything or anyone. Unfortunately, almost a year after Lanius became Legate, she committed suicide in their tent. Some of the legionary soldiers had sneaked into their tent while Lanius was away doing Cesar's dirty work, and decided to take turns with her. When Lanius came back, it was already too late. With his beloved's dying breath, he found out who had violated her and drove her to the end. Needless to say, there was a _culling_ of some of Cesar's best soldiers that night."

Boone and McNamara looked puzzled, "How would he get her back if she's already dead?" McNamara asked.

The question made Daniel grin, "I would have thought the answer would be obvious to you of all people Nolan".

McNamara's eyes widened, "By changing his past! So he contacted you, through White… I assume White told him about Maya and that she came from the past?"

Daniel pointed a finger at McNamara, "Bingo".

"So…what, he has asked for his past to be changed? In return for what?"

"That he keep Maya safe until you and your group could get to her, and that when I need his help in the near future that he answer my call" Daniel answered plainly.

By this time, the others were beginning to rouse and stumble out of their rooms. All except for Maya, who stood behind her doorway and peered outside. Her eyes scanned the area, she saw a disgruntled Ramos and concerned Ibsen stumble toward McNamara, and Boone helping Ibsen take a seat on a couch and handing him a glass of sparkling water. Several guards were about, but none of them seemed to be concerned about their prisoners leaving the rooms. A familiar man with greying hair, bronze horn rimmed glasses, and a smart grey suit.

Maya clutched the doorway to steady herself as she began to realise who it was. He was a little older, looked to be no more than in his early to mid-fifties, a couple of wrinkles around his eyes but overall in excellent condition. As though he could feel someone watching him, he turned and those familiar blue eyes met hers. It was him, incontestably.

"Danny"…


	31. Chapter 32: Humanity's Hope

Two days had passed since Maya and her friends entered the vault and were met by Daniel. Sitting in the fantastically stocked and run cafeteria on the common floor, Maya sipped her coffee and inhaled the rich aroma, savouring the delicate notes in her mind. She had gone over two months without coffee, and this was one of Maya's favourite creature comforts. This was the first time in a while that she had a moment to herself, so she took the time to reflect on all that had happened since their arrival, listening to the faint songs playing on the radio across the room. McNamara, Ibsen, Ramos and Boone were busy with other matters and Maya didn't see them since yesterday morning when they were reunited with the kidnapped Brotherhood members. The reunion was emotionally and psychologically taxing on everyone, especially McNamara as he believed that most of his people had been lost in the explosion in Hidden Valley. But there was also a lot of suspicion and anger directed at Daniel and the personnel in the Vault, despite Daniel explaining to them at length that he did everything in his available power to minimise harm and risk caused to everyone. Maya didn't blame them for harbouring suspicion, she had some of her own and felt like there was a lot of information that Daniel was keeping on the side. No doubt McNamara and the group would want to vacate the vault as soon as possible.

Maya was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she jumped when she saw Daniel walk up to her and request the seat opposite her. Shifting in her chair from embarrassment at her reaction, she smiled and nodded.

"Didn't take you for a nervous Nelly", Daniel smiled, "Although circumstances being what they are, I understand your reaction". He sighed, sitting forward and folding his arms in front of him, as he always did when he was concerned but didn't want to show it, "How are you doing? You looked a bit lost in thought".

Maya shrugged, "Alright…you know, circumstances being what they are" she shifted her eyes down to her coffee. Seeing him so much older was unnerving; she was still expecting to see the young Danny she knew before the accident, "Gosh it's weird…".

"Yeah, I know what you mean" he laughed, "I haven't seen you in a couple of centuries". He waved a Mr. Handy robot down to get him a cup of coffee as well and they sat together in silence for a while, absorbed in the thoughts and feelings they wanted to express but weren't sure how. Maya remembered when they used to spend so much time in the University's cafeteria, losing track of time as they discussed various subjects and worked through problems together. The memories made her smile.

"You remember that time we were sitting in a cafeteria discussing the theory of time travel and parallel universes?" Daniel asked, his lips breaking into a big grin, "We must have spent the whole afternoon there arguing over minutia".

"Alright, stop it!" Maya said in amusement.

Daniel's eyes widened, "What? What did I say?"

"I was _just_ thinking the same thing" she laughed, "You got a mind reading device on you or something?"

"No, those are incredibly heavy and would never fit into my pocket" Daniel replied matter-of-factly. Seeing the slight concern on her face he added, "Not that I would ever use it on you or your friends though, you have my word on that. I just… I reminisce a lot about the past, about you and me and the fun times we've had".

Maya nodded, "I remember White mentioned some of the events that happened after the experiment that made me disappear and travel to this twisted future". As soon as Maya brought the topic up she noticed something change in Danny. He seemed uneasy. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to bring back bad memories" she added apologetically.

Daniel shook his head, "No need. It was… Hard to lose you." He studied Maya, his eyes going over her features nostalgically for a moment before a lump in his throat forced him to look away and get back to reality. "But you're here now! And soon we'll have you back home so you needn't worry about anything else".

"Daniel… Don't take this the wrong way but… how are you still alive?" Maya asked curiously.

Taking a sip of his coffee, Daniel explained the science behind his longer lifespan: how the chroniton radiation he was exposed to made his cells age at a slower rate and that he had developed a DNA regenerative serum that he administered to himself every year. Though his cells were slow to age, the process was not altogether halted. He would eventually die of old age, but not for another three, maybe four hundred years. Maya sat in silence, wide eyed at the thought of the possibility of a human living for centuries.

Although his words brought her some comfort, she couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't telling her something. She remembered a question she wanted to ask since she saw him, a question that no one could answer her since she arrived in this apocalyptic world. "Daniel, why is everything so weird here?".

"What do you mean?" Daniel shook his head looking perplexed.

" _Everything!_ And I mean everything from the technology to clothing has a very 40's and 50's vibe. What the hell happened? I asked White about this but his answer didn't fit."

Daniel's expression turned thoughtful, "About two decades after your disappearance there was a nostalgic movement that took off and swept the country like wildfire. Something to do with getting back to old roots and mannerisms as there was a growing concern about the rising population's behaviour being… _distasteful_ " Daniel answered, "To be honest I don't really remember much of the reasons why, but it did something profound – it reigned in a scatter-brained society that was numbing itself with excess and after a few years helped to bring about a revolution in science and technology."

"Really?... That's it?" Maya asked, looking rather disappointed with the answer, "White said something about me disappearing having a butterfly effect".

Daniel laughed, trying to brush off any of Maya's doubts, "I don't think that's the case, although we did lose a great scientist when you disappeared so, who knows what the alternative would be if you hadn't left. When you get back and if things don't change after twenty years you can tell me I'm wrong" he joked. "Hey, how about I give you a tour of the Vault? We haven't had time to catch up since you got here so we can do that while I show you around" he asked as he stood up, trying to change the topic of conversation without being too obvious.

Maya laughed and nodded, "Sure. We can talk on the way" she picked up her unfinished cup of coffee and walked with Daniel out of the cafeteria, "But when I go back you won't have any memories of this discussion, so I imagine you'd be very confused if one day in 2037 I come up to you and say 'Oh hey Danny you were wrong'" she laughed.

"You can tell me all about it, and you won't have to worry about breaking any laws of time travel" Daniel smiled, leading her into an elevator and taking her to see their research facility a couple of floors down. They spent the better part of the day talking about everything and anything, it almost felt like they were back in the University… almost.

As they were finishing up their tour, Daniel decided to let Maya have a look at their greenhouse facility and they finally finished by taking a stroll through the arboretum, sitting down on a wooden bench to rest their weary feet.

"Daniel, what do you think of the Brotherhood of Steel?" Maya asked curiously. She turned to face him and was surprised by his expression of distaste.

"They're a lost cause, fighting a losing battle by trying to keep technology away from people. They may as well try to keep people from breathing".

Maya laughed, "You don't like them".

"Of course I don't! They're a bunch of bullies created out of the ashes of the US military, listening to the sinister orders of the creators of Vault-Tec!" Daniel scoffed.

"But McNamara, Ramos, Irvine…they're not bad, are they?" she tried to meet Daniel's evading eyes, "They can't all be like what you describe".

Daniel sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. This was the most he's ever spoken with someone in a day, and he was trying not to sound like such a pessimist. What she said was true to some extent. "I think that there are some honest, hardworking people in the Brotherhood faction. _They_ are not evil, but a faction is the sum of its parts; and a whole lot of good people banding together under an _unethical_ banner creates a dangerous faction that can do some very evil things", Daniel replied candidly. "But you are right…there are some who broke off from traditions and instead opted to help people. There was one Elder, whose actions and deeds I followed for his entire life… he put the people of the Capitol wasteland first. He used the power and assets of the Brotherhood to help as many people as he could. He was different…he changed the priority of his Brotherhood group to instead focus on providing protection, clean water and aid to whoever needed it, and when he stepped down as Elder and his daughter took over, she did the same. But they were a special case. The main goal of the Brotherhood is keeping technology away from other people, and because this Elder did not abide by those rules and standards, he and his people were effectively cut off from the Brotherhood of Steel", he said.

"Why is that their main goal?" Maya asked.

"To keep control" Daniel answered bluntly, "If the Brotherhood has all the advanced technology at their disposal, no one will be able to stand up to them. They effectively become the undisputed rulers of the wastelands".

"Makes sense…" Maya's voice trailed off as she began to realise the potential damage this could cause to everyone if it came to pass. "I read in one of the Brotherhood's history books that Elder Maxson was the youngest Elder to ever be given that title. He must have done something right to be given that honour".

"Pah!" Daniel scoffed in annoyance, "Elder Maxson embraces what I like to call Human exclusivity at the expense of all other sentient beings. As he got a bit older, his ideology of hoarding technology relaxed a little, but only as so far as to allow followers or potential future Brotherhood members to use the technology they hoarded for the betterment of the Brotherhood. However, their species exclusivity makes them weaker. As powerful and as awesome as the Brotherhood is, their ideology makes them weaker as a faction. A perfect example of this was when Maxson ordered the execution of Paladin Danse when he found out he was a synth. A Paladin whom he noted in his journal, and I quote, "he's one of my most respected field officers". And just to give you a glimpse into how far Maxson has gone down the rabbit hole: Danse was a core member of the Brotherhood, if it wasn't for him the Brotherhood would never have gone to Boston. If it wasn't for Paladin Danse, the Brotherhood would never have stopped The Institute from taking over the Commonwealth; and Maxson would still be back in the Capitol scratching his balls and shooting up supermutants for kicks. He himself cut the throat of his best, most loyal, and strongest member. _Another_ weakness is that they see potential allies as enemies. Sentient ghouls, super mutants, and synths who just want to live out a normal life are all branded abominations and freaks under the Brotherhood's umbrella, and all Brotherhood members are ordered to exterminate anyone they come across who doesn't fit the human criteria. If you ask me, the Brotherhood make too many enemies to the point where they surround themselves with people and other factions who would like nothing better than to see the Brotherhood fall, or have a direct hand in its demise. We all know the wisdom of Winston Churchill: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Even if you have some differing opinions or ideologies to other factions, it's stupid…just plain stupid to make war on all of the factions at the same time."

Maya shook her head in confusion, "Wait, what's a synth?"

Heaving a long sigh, Daniel pushed up his glasses that had slid down his nose, "That's a story all of its own, and a long one. But to briefly answer your question: synths are synthetic people that were created by The Institute. The 'new synth models' were all practically flesh and blood, except for their enhanced skeletal structure and some micro chips in their brains that would turn on at the push of a button if the Institute wanted to activate them to do their bidding. But with inactive chips these people are unaware of the Institute's existence or what their purpose is, they just live thinking they're ordinary people".

This was all a lot of information for Maya to take in, but she still had some concerns about the Brotherhood and whether they would be able to change. She posed the question to Daniel, who seemed to adamantly refuse that idea.

"The Brotherhood of Steel is not _for_ the people" he stressed, "They are ultimately the right-hand man for Vault-Tec".

"Right" Maya hung her head, "Sorry, I know I'm not one hundred percent familiar with everything that happened and all the faction politics, I just…".

"I know" Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder, "I do not expect anything less from you. I know you would do anything to help people, and you have always been a natural problem solver, but this… this is a much bigger problem even for you to tackle" he smiled, "Let's go get some dinner and try to catch up with your friends".

"Hey, one last question" Maya said as they both stood up, "What was the name of that Elder you were so fond of?"

Daniel blinked, the question taking him by surprise, "Uh… Huh" he chuckled nervously, "The name escapes me" he shook his head, unable to bring himself to tell her the name, "I'm sure it'll come to me later" he placed an arm around her shoulders and they left the arboretum together in search of McNamara and the others, with Daniel trying to take her mind off the grim reality of the wasteland by reminiscing about their university days.

* * *

McNamara was supervising his team in a cargo hold that had been converted to house all his Brothers and Sisters. He was planning on leaving in less than 12 hours with Maya to the no-man zone where he first went to send a message back into the past. They needed to move quickly before the assault on McCarren airport took place, though for all they knew the Legion was already upon the NCR. The Elder looked around and spotted Boone putting his rifle back together after cleaning it.

He walked up to him, tossing him his red beret that he absentmindedly left back in the leisure room, "Hey, have you seen Maya?" he asked. Putting his hat back on, Boone shook his head.

"Let's go find her and make sure she's ready for us to move out".

McNamara and Boone left the group who were busying themselves with their belongings and weapons, getting ready for the word to move out. They found Maya and Daniel sitting opposite each other in the leisure room looking over what appeared to be architectural floor plans.

"Maya, we're leaving in less than 12 hours. Make sure you're ready before dawn, we fly out at 6AM" McNamara said, taking a seat next to her while Boone hovered her, studying the papers on the coffee table.

"What's this?" he asked, pointing at the rolls of paper.

"Floor plans of the University, we're looking over the best possible entry points. Some of the corridors collapsed since you were last there" Daniel answered.

McNamara leaned in to whisper in Maya's ear, "I don't feel comfortable with him giving us advice on where to go".

"I'm right here!" Daniel said somewhat annoyed, "I can hear you".

"Daniel's coming with us Nolan" Maya answered, "He's going to help us repair and set up the collider again".

The news made McNamara's expression turn sour, "There's nothing we can't handle" he turned to Daniel, "Ibsen set up the equipment last time, he can do it again".

"Yes but… you had to smash through the aluminium oxynitride to break the vacuum seal and sever the tube to get me out" Maya replied. She made a good point and McNamara was too engrossed with their current problems to think about fixing the collider. After a moment contemplating the idea, he agreed.

"I'll need to have a word with you later" he turned to Daniel, "to make sure some things are clear between us".

Daniel nodded, "I expect nothing less".

Maya finished up with Daniel and went with Boone to get her things in order and give Ibsen some more information about the plan she and Daniel came up with for repairs.

* * *

Around 9 PM McNamara made his way to Daniel's office with Jonathan by his side, helping him get through security. He was in no mood to be argued with, he just wanted to go in there and let Daniel know what the plan was and for him to follow it to the letter. There was also something about the Vault that made him feel uneasy, and the sooner they all left the better. This was their only shot and they couldn't afford to screw it up. The doors to Daniel's office opened and McNamara walked right up to Daniel who was engrossed in some information on his flat monitor.

"Erm, Dr. Hadden, Elder McNamara here to see you" Jonathan piped up behind Nolan. Without looking up, Daniel nodded, "Thank you Jonathan, that'll be all. Please wait outside".

As soon as he was out of the room, McNamara turned his attention to Daniel, his voice low and commanding, "We leave at 6AM on the dot, if you're not at the Vertibird by then we'll leave you behind. When you are with us, I expect obedience. If I give an order, you follow it, no questions asked. If you try to hinder our mission in any way, I will shoot you myself. I hope I've made myself clear".

Daniel was still looking through the information on his monitor, as though McNamara's harsh words had no effect on him. Rather, he seemed slightly amused by it, "Now _there's_ an amusing thought. A Brotherhood Elder ordering a Founding Father around" he turned to McNamara, a friendly smile on his face, "There's no need for your concern, we're on the same side".

McNamara's face contorted in disgust, "No, we're far from it. Unlike you, _I_ don't play God with other people's lives".

Daniel sighed in frustration and rolled his eyes, "Sure you do Nolan, you're playing with Maya's life and the lives of every living being in the wastes. And if she gets hurt because of you, trust me, I'll do something a lot worse than shoot you".

"I get that you were friends in University or something, but you weren't around when she needed you most. Now suddenly you show yourself, and you want to help. What do you hope to achieve out of this?".

Daniel chuckled and slowly stood up from his chair, walking around the table until he and McNamara stood face to face, "My hope is that I give Maya, and myself, a chance to make a positive change, and pass on the knowledge that she's gained from this world so that the other doesn't make the same mistake. I've known Maya since we were in pre-school, we grew up together, I was and always will be there for her. You are only helping her because you have your own agenda"

"You mean like trying to stop the world from being annihilated?" McNamara asked mockingly.

"I mean like trying to get your Elder title back" Daniel answered bluntly, "I know the Brotherhood from the Capitol was going to strip you of your role as leader in Hidden Valley. In fact, the order came from the Founding Fathers themselves. I myself was against it, but the others thought that you were a danger to undermine all their hard work and my vote was overruled by the majority. So, _all_ of this, all of what has happened, is because of your ego".

McNamara's face was turning a bright shade of red as his irritation bubbled to the surface; but ultimately Daniel was correct. He had no argument against that, and Daniel's response confirmed that there was another hand at play, pulling the strings behind the curtains.

"Do you even know who she _is_?" Daniel pressed, "You've dragged a woman from another world through the wasteland with you, put her in harm's way. I know that pulling her out of time was not your original intention, but it happened, and have you even taken the time to find out if she can even help you?"

"She's our only hope" McNamara answered, feeling slightly defeated by Daniel's words. He did regret not taking the time to get to know Maya better, but he had to keep her at arm's length. He knew that if he got too close, it would be harder for everyone when she finally had to leave.

Daniel smiled, "Yes, she is, but she's also more", and respectfully showed McNamara the door. He didn't wish to have an argument with a man he had come to respect, even though he was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, but he didn't have time to explain to him the gravity of Maya's role.

McNamara nodded and, deep in thought, slowly made his way to the automatic door, which hissed to life as it detected his presence. But something Daniel said him stop in the middle of the doorway.

"Is there anything else you wanted to order me to do?" Daniel asked, a slight acerbic tone to his voice.

"You said Maya's so much more than our only hope… What did you mean?" McNamara requested. He didn't expect the next words that came out of Daniel's mouth.

"I would have expected a Brotherhood of Steel Elder such as yourself to recognise the selfless and honourable traits of a Lyons".


	32. Chapter 33: Covert Action

Maya lay in her cot in the converted cargo room, her eyes wide awake staring at the ceiling and her mind racing. It was gone 10 PM and sleep eluded her on the night that she was supposed to get enough rest so that she may be at peak performance in the morning; it was getting frustrating. The gentle breathing of the other brotherhood members and the hum from the power running through the cables in the walls was broken spasmodically by snores, the patter of water droplets from a leaky sink in the corner of the room, and spontaneous human farts.

 _'Oh. My. God…'_ Maya thought slightly disgusted. She sat up, unable to stay in the room any longer. Quietly without waking anyone up, she took her blanket with her and made her way to the leisure room, plopping herself with a sigh on one of the three-seater couches and resting her head on the cushioned arm rest. But even in this spot she couldn't get comfortable. Her mind wouldn't stop going over possible scenarios that they might encounter in the morning, what she would say to her friends before she left, or what would be waiting for her when she got back. Then a thought festered in the back of her mind that she tried to silence: what if she didn't want to go back?

 _'Stop it! Of course you want to go back you stupid woman'_ she chastised herself, _'You've got your work, friends, and Daniel waiting for you'_.

Maya was so occupied with her own thoughts that she didn't realise she wasn't alone. A dishevelled looking Boone was sitting on the cold floor on the other side of the room, one leg outstretched and the other bent at the knee. A bottle of liquor with more than half of its contents missing in one hand, and his head in the other, elbow resting on his raised knee. He didn't seem to notice Maya's entrance. The sight was enough to make Maya's thoughts stop. As quietly and stealthily as she could, she picked her blanket back up and tip toed to him.

"Hey…" Boone said when she got half way to him, his voice rough and slightly muffled by the position of his hand, "you should be sleeping, what are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing. And why are you intoxicated and sitting all alone here on the floor?" Maya asked, offering him the blanket. When Boone shook his head, and tried to wave her attempts away, she got hold of his arm and started pulling him up.

"I asked first" he replied as he got on his wobbly feet, squinting and rubbing his red and slightly crusted eyes. Maya's heart sank as she began to realise the likely reason he'd been drinking…

"I couldn't sleep… My mind's racing and the others wouldn't stop farting" she replied candidly, the last statement making him chuckle. With one arm around her shoulder, Maya helped him to the couch. He refused to lie down so Maya shared half of her blanket by draping it over him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"So why are you not sleeping?" she asked. Taking care of him helped get her mind off of her current worries. When he didn't reply, she looked up at him. He was looking straight ahead, as though lost in his thoughts, "Want to talk about it?" Clearly something was bothering him.

After a moment of thoughtful silence, Boone's brow furrowed and he shook his head, "No". He felt powerless, and silence was his only shelter.

With a sigh, Maya gave him a brief glimpse into her own thoughts, and as she spoke she felt the rigidity in his body slowly melt away, until he became more relaxed, smiling at some of the oddities and amusing things she said she would do when she went back home, his arm still wrapped around her. She must have gone on for at least 45 minutes before she started feeling a bit drowsy. Boone hadn't said a word, he just listened to her every word.

"So, I've told you everything that's been on my mind, how about you tell me what is so heavy on yours?" she asked innocently, looking up at him. Feeling his body begin to go rigid again, she shook him gently until he turned to face her, "Hey, you can tell me anything. Whatever it is, you'll feel better after you get it off your chest".

He sighed and much to Maya's annoyance, shook his head again, "I fear it would only make things harder and complicate what we… what has to be done".

His words made her heart do a little flip in her chest. Maya had a feeling where this was going, but she needed to hear the words.

"No, it won't" she gently squeezed his arm. The quiet in the room was deafening as Boone weighed his thoughts carefully.

After several minutes of their pondering silence, Maya's heart was beating too fast to calm it without saying the words that she felt needed to be said. If this was going to be her last night here, she wanted him to know. "Alright. If you're not going say anything, then there's something that I haven't told you. It's been kind of bugging me and I need to get it off my chest, so…here goes. Craig… I care about you, deeply", she began, feeling her throat tighten and her hands go clammy. Even if he didn't feel the same about her, she needed him to know, because this was the last chance she had to speak with him in person and away from curious ears "So much that… I'm not even sure that I really want to go back". His eyes met hers, almost apologetically. She felt his breathing quicken, and the sight of his ears going pink made her smile. "I don't know if you feel the same, but – "

With a quick but gentle motion, Boone placed a hand at the nape of her neck, leaned in and kissed her passionately. His kiss stole the words that Maya didn't get to finish, and he didn't need to say. In that silence, all their secrets were laid bare, all their passions and the unexpected spark of intimacy that had manifested between them. In that moment, in his love, Maya was strong. One kiss and she had the courage to do what had to be done. Pulling away gently, he kissed her forehead and wrapped both arms around her, leaning back on the couch to a reclined position and pulled her close so that her head was resting comfortably on his chest. Maya could feel his heart pounding hard under his shirt and his breath quicken, increasing in intensity as she ran her hand up to stroke his face. Her own heart responded in kind when Boone unexpectedly let his hand drift to her hip, where it settled and pulled her in closer.

"You have to go back" he whispered, a sorrow in his voice that he could not completely contain.

"I know…" Maya replied softly, wrapping her free arm around his waist and giving him a squeeze, savouring their tender moment.

* * *

The computer screen flickered in the dim light as Daniel went over the data for their morning mission, security footage playing in a window in a small corner of the screen. Everything was processed and ready for their departure in four hours, all the tools and materials were prepped and waiting in the Vertibird bay, and Daniel had worked out a way to send Maya back to her world; but he was still feeling uneasy. His office door opened and Jonathan walked in carrying a medical file and setting it on Daniel's desk.

"The tests you requested, sir" Jonathan said politely and stood rooted opposite his leader, waiting for his next request.

Daniel flicked through the pages, his brow furrowing to a frown as he got closer to the end, "Are the doctors certain of these results?".

Jonathan nodded, "Yes, sir. Vehemently".

With a sigh Daniel dropped the file in front of him and left his desk for a more comfortable seat on his three-seater couch in the corner.

"Sir?" Jonathan called, shifting uncertainly on his feet as he considered his next words carefully.

"What is it my friend?" Daniel groaned, reclining on the couch and rubbing his eyes from underneath his glasses.

"I know this is a sensitive topic but… she should know" Jonathan replied, averting Daniel's gaze.

"We've been through this, and we've done the probability calculations based on her psychological and mental profile. You've seen it yourself and even recommended against informing her, which I wholeheartedly agreed with. No, she can't know about this… If she does there's a high possibility that she will refuse to leave".

Jonathan nodded slowly. Daniel's words were final, but there was something else in the file that Jonathan wanted to address. "There is a final matter in the medical report, sir. About her chronic exposure to chroniton radiation…".

Daniel sighed, knowing this information would be a blow to Maya. "Yes… I saw…"

"Sir, please excuse my opinion if it is out of place, but she has a right to know about that. It will affect the rest of her long…long life" Daniel interjected.

"Of course, you are correct. I will make the arrangements now to give her access to this information after she gets back to her world" he said sitting back up. Although his cells were ageing at a reduced rate, Daniel was beginning to feel the years creeping up on him. "Thank you, Jonathan; you may go".

Once his assistant was gone, Daniel went back to his computer and set about making a holotape for Maya, including all the information he had on her condition and the truth about the past she would be getting back to.

* * *

The Vertibird hangar bay was buzzing with action by 4AM, with prep crew checking the aircraft, loading the machine guns with ammunition, equipment and supplies. Since Daniel did not require much sleep, he spent most of the morning supervising the work and surprised McNamara when he arrived half an hour before departure with a line of new and improved power armour for every member of his unit, including Maya and Boone with their own custom armour. McNamara thanked him, but there was still a ways to go before Daniel would earn his full trust.

"I presume you will want to proceed with a small team to the University site?" Daniel asked absentmindedly.

McNamara blinked at him somewhat perplexed as he quickly scanned their surroundings, "Yes, but from the looks of things you're preparing a small armada".

Daniel shook his head, "We will take two Vertibirds with us, and the rest will take the remainder of your group to the new Brotherhood site".

Hearing this information made McNamara stop in his tracks, "Wait… what? There's no way I'm letting you take them to some undisclosed location in the middle of nowhere without checking out the site beforehand".

"It's not in the middle of nowhere, it's one of our unused supply sites in the Mojave we had to stop using once NCR activity increased in that area. I had my scouts check the location out and it's clean, arrangements have already been made and all the supplies and equipment your people will need to start anew have been transferred there", Daniel replied with an exasperated sigh.

McNamara shook his head, making a display of protest by crossing his arms in front of his chest. Daniel was not in the mood to argue, but he was becoming impatient. They were running out of time…

"Very well, I'll make the arrangements for you to travel back with your people instead, while Maya and I go to the site". Hearing this, McNamara realized he was not in any position to dictate orders and only really had two choices to make: go with his people and make sure they're safe, or go with Maya. Although he wanted to go with his people, his gut was telling him that he had to help Maya. After all, she was only in this mess because of him. He needed to compromise.

Relenting with a sigh, McNamara said he would comply with Daniel's initial plan as there was simply not enough time to second guess and re-plan everything. The Legion was moving in on the NCR and the people of the Mojave; without their support, the upcoming battle would more than likely devastate the population in the desert, leaving nothing but a barren corpse strewn wasteland.

"I'm relieved to hear this. Follow me, there are significant updates with the new suits that I must show you" Daniel answered, eagerly leading the Elder to suit allocated to him.

It was a marvellous piece of engineering! McNamara had to restrain his excitement as Daniel gave him the operating run-through. The power armour, designated X-IV, was sleek, modern, less bulky and much lighter than anything he had ever seen. It was specifically designed to withstand high levels of radiation and impact from both ballistic and energy weapons. Despite the lack of bulk, there were two metal skin layers that sandwiched a pliable piezoelectric hydrogel in between that converted lost energy from movement and friction into usable electricity, enabling an extended lifetime of their fusion cores. The armour looked like it was specifically made for each and every one of them as the height and contours of the suits were all different; not to mention there was a clear distinction between suits for the males and those for females. McNamara's suit had a distinct dark red brotherhood of steel logo on his left shoulder, indicating seniority status. He examined everything before opening up the back and getting in. The first thing he noticed when the back of the suit closed on him was the padding inside inflating to fit him perfectly.

"Oh wow!" he exclaimed, "This is strange…"

Daniel cocked an eyebrow and looked down at the monitor next to his armour, checking the systems. "How so? Is it not comfortable? Maybe we need to make some adjustments to the – "

"No! No, it's not that. It just feels very different from the regular power armour… As if the armour itself is an extension of my own body." McNamara described, moving his arms around to check the fine motor controls of his new gear, bringing his hands up to his visor and flexing his fingers. Everything felt so smooth, no resistance, like he and the armour were one. It was also surprisingly quiet, no whirring or clanking as he moved around. Suddenly a Hud in his visor flickered to life, dousing his face with a gentle blue light. He noticed that it followed the movement of his eyes, scanning the area around him and bringing up a list of options. "How does it do that?!"

"What?"

"It's like it knows exactly what I want to do" McNamara smiled, trying to hold back an excited laugh.

"We have integrated a scanner in the helmet that analyses your brainwave patterns and compares them to your bio-readings, like heart rate, respiration, your eye movements, and scans your surroundings to determine your needs to every conceivable situation", Daniel replied nonchalantly as he went over McNamara's readings. "Everything's in the green, you're all set" he added.

"That's both disturbing and impressive" McNamara admitted, "Has the suit been tested in combat situations? How would it react?" McNamara asked as he moved out of the power armour station.

"Oh yes, extensively. In fact, let me demonstrate", Daniel replied casually, and without any warning pulled out a pistol concealed in his jacket, aimed and fired at McNamara's chest before he had time to react; but it was no problem for the armour. It only took a nanosecond for the Hud to register hostile actions and engage its defensive energy barrier before Daniel pulled the trigger. The bullet just ricocheted off the barrier with a high pitched ' _pang_ ' and up into the high ceiling, making McNamara stumble back in shock.

"YOU SHOT ME!" he exclaimed, patting the chest of his armour to check for damage. At point blank range, even his own power armour would have had difficulty stopping a bullet from penetrating. But there was nothing, not even a scratch on the paint. The Hud in his suit indicated only a minor drop in power, about half a percent, but otherwise no damage.

Daniel shrugged, "I thought you would want a first-hand demonstration. The suit is equipped with a defensive barrier that engages when it detects you are in a hostile situation; it absorbs the impact force of a projectile instead of allowing it to contact the actual armour. Also, if you are shot at with an energy based weapon, it helps to re-charge your fusion core" he explained.

"Well… You could have just said so! Give me a heads up next time" McNamara replied, shaking off the tension in his muscles from the impromptu test.

"Don't worry, I don't plan on shooting you again" was all Daniel said.

"That a promise?"

Daniel turned to face him, "I'm a man of my word", he said without a doubt in his voice before nodding his approval of the condition of McNamara's armour and was led away by Jonathan to attend another matter, leaving McNamara to get acquainted with his new set up.

* * *

"Dr. Hadden, I'm sorry to take you away from the preparations, but there's been a development" Jonathan said with a veneer of calm in his tone.

"What's the matter?" Daniel asked, "Do we need to alter our plans?"

Jonathan glanced around him, as though uncertain of the security of their current location, "I think it's best we discuss this somewhere…private, sir". Daniel felt a knot in his stomach; something must be off if Jonathan was this concerned so close to their launch window. They left the bay and headed for Daniel's office.

"Sir, it would be wise if there was no record of our conversation" Jonathan added as they stepped into the office. Daniel was perplexed, Jonathan had never asked him to go off the record in this manner. He gazed at his friend's features, trying to decipher what was going on. The sensors in his glasses informed him that Jonathan's heartbeat and respiration was elevated, indicating significant stress. "Please, Daniel… I'm asking as your friend".

' _This must be a matter of great importance'_ , Daniel thought. He nodded and went over to his computer, entered his codes without hesitation and disabled the room's internal audio and visual monitoring sensors. "Alright, the room is secure. What's troubling you?" he asked, but before he could turn his attention back to Jonathan, there was a deafening sound and Daniel lost all sensation below his waist. With a strained groan, he collapsed on his side. All he could hear was a high-pitched ringing and the rushing of blood in his ears. Blinking in shock, he looked down at his bleeding abdomen where he had been shot, and not far away was Jonathan… gun still in his quivering hand. He was speaking, but Daniel was still in shock that he couldn't make out a word over the sound of blood rushing.

"Jonathan…You don't…have to do this…" Daniel spoke between breaths. The room was spinning and he felt like no matter how deeply he inhaled, he wasn't getting enough air. The bullet must have damaged one of his lungs.

Jonathan shook his head, shut his eyes tight. Daniel could only watch as Jonathan aimed the gun closer to his face and pulled the trigger one last time…


	33. Chapter 34: Honour & Steel

Jonathan knelt next to his mentor, his hands still shaking. Blood was still trickling out of Daniel's abdomen and his shoulder. A soft exhale escaped his bloodied lips every few seconds. He was still alive, but barely.

 _"Get a hold of yourself, there's no time to lose. Scan his face, grab his tie and glasses and activate the hologram"_ the voice in his head ordered. Jonathan had no choice but to comply to its wishes. He pulled out a scanner the size and shape of a pen, placed it a few inches away from Daniel's face. A horizontal white line scanned Daniel's facial features, emitting a high-pitched beep when it was done. Jonathan fumbled it back in his jacket pocket, tears streaming down his cheeks, grabbed Daniel's glasses and stood back up on shaky legs and left the room. He could have sworn he heard Daniel's faint voice call out as he closed and locked the door behind him.

Wiping the tears away, he reached back in his jacket and pressed another button on the scanner. It quietly whirred to life and created a holographic mask of Daniel's face that moulded itself over Jonathan's. Taking another component out of the same pocket, this time a circular flexible disk, he placed it at the base of his neck in the small crevice where his collar bones almost met. A burning sting made him almost yelp in pain as the tightly wound nanowires embedded in the component pierced his skin and wrapped themselves around his vocal chords, moulding them so he could speak in Daniel's voice. He tied a Windsor Knot using Daniel's tie around his neck and folded the collar of his shirt over it to cover up any sign of the disk. Overall, it was a perfect disguise. To everyone else around him, he would look and sound like Daniel; now all that was left was get to the University, hijack the frequency and transmit it to his superiors…

* * *

Every member of McNamara's group was in the hangar bay getting into their new power armour and chatting excitedly about their new gear. Ibsen was critically examining his own armour, before movement from a familiar figure caught his eye on the right. About three armour stations down, Maya was sat on a swivel stool and frantically looking up and down the line at others eagerly getting in their armour. She didn't have her Pip-Boy on her, and Ibsen remembered he was supposed to return it to her. He went over to his supply bag and rummaged through it until he felt the familiar shape and walked over to her.

"Here Maya, don't forget to put on your Pip-Boy before you get in" he placed the device on top of the computer monitor as she frantically went over the manual for her power armour. Her hands were shaking. "What's wrong?"

A mix between a laugh and a nervous whimper escaped her lips, "This thing…it's so complicated…. I think I'll just stick with one of the radiation suits" she said as her fingers hovered over each line she read in the manual.

Ibsen smiled and pulled her away from the monitor, "Stop reading that and get in! It's easy to use, just load your fusion core, flip the small latch on the side and get in when it opens. Once you're in, bring your arms down to your sides and that will close your suit. That's all you need to know" he said.

"It's easy for you! What if… what if I cause an overload in the core and blow myself up?!" Maya's panicked voice was muffled as two technicians pulled what looked like a white sweater with a multitude sensors and wires strategically scattered throughout the fabric.

Ibsen laughed, "Maya, you're a scientist, you _know_ there are safeguards against that kind of thing from happening."

"Of course, I _know_ , but shit happens and you gotta know how to deal with it." She replied somewhat annoyed as she was guided inside the armour by the two technicians, hesitantly placing her feet in first.

"I told you, stop worrying." Ibsen replied as he checked over her suit's readings through the monitor next to the armour station, "Besides, being inside power armour is the safest place to be. It can withstand a great deal of radiation, keeps you safe from both energy and ballistic firepower, and these suits have advanced biohazard filtration systems in them, meaning you could walk through the densest FEV cloud and nothing would get through it".

His words re-assured Maya somewhat, though she was still hesitant about the power source. A well-placed shot from one of their enemies could crack the core's containment and boom! Instant death.

"Hey! Pip-Boy!" Ibsen reminded her before she placed her arms in the armour, "Daniel mentioned he made some additions to it, you'd better keep it safe".

"Oh? Did he say what?" Maya asked curiously as she examined it before securing it to her left arm.

Ibsen shrugged, "Must have updated the software I would imagine, I think he also mentioned something about adding technical information or schematics and some of his recordings".

Maya shook her head in confusion, "What kind of recordings?"

"Didn't specify, and I didn't ask. Guess you'll find out when you get back. Oh yeah, one last thing: he specifically said not to listen to any of his messages _until_ you got back home".

 _'That's weird'_ Maya thought perplexed. Her interest was piqued, but she would follow Daniel's wishes. Finally, with both arms in, Maya dropped her arms to her sides as Ibsen recommended and almost squeaked in surprise as the suit closed behind her and moulded itself to her body. It felt particularly weird as the dense yet soft memory foam like material moulded itself around her gluteus maximus. Overall though, she really liked her suit. She noticed that everyone had an emblem on their left arm, the majority of which were the typical BOS insignia of the gears encased in a circle, with wings underneath and a sword in the front. She looked about 4 or 5 stations across to her right and saw Boone's had a two-headed bear with a black bear skull and two rifles crossed behind it. He was all geared up and helping with the preparations. The insignia on Maya's armour, however, was somewhat similar to the BOS one; but instead of gears it had a roaring lion standing in front of the sword on its back legs with its two front paws extended out in front of it. It was also in the same command red colour as McNamara's, which was an odd choice considering she did not have a command of her own. Having more pressing matters to consider, she pushed the thought to one side and made a mental note to ask Daniel about it later if there was time.

A booming voice from the head of security jolted everyone to attention, "Alright, Alpha company start boarding your VertiBird, Beta company follow me" he waved and made a bee line for the VertiBirds at the back of the hangar. At the same time Daniel walked into the hangar and, without acknowledging anyone, quickly walked over to his station and got into his armour. Although the others didn't pay much attention to his sudden appearance, Maya could see that he was stressed.

"Danny, you alright?" she asked as she walked up to him. His eyes twitched up at her, then scanned the area before he put his helmet on. This was very unlike him…

"Fine, just running late" he replied brusquely. His voice sounded slightly off, strained as though he had a slight cold.

"Don't worry, we should make it on time, we've got another 30 minutes before we have to leave" she added in an attempt to calm him. But Daniel shook his head.

"We must leave now", with a click his helmet was secured and he almost jogged to the VertiBird, "Everyone board the craft now, we are leaving!" he yelled. There was some confusion, but all complied with his order. Maya and the others collected their gear and hurriedly loaded it all as the engines started. Thankfully her new power armour allowed her to lift objects much heavier than she ever could on her own. Securing themselves in Irvine's VertiBird were Maya, McNamara, and Daniel, while Ramos, Ibsen, and Boone were in one of Daniel's. With a load groan, the hangar's ceiling opened outward, flooding the bay with a cold gust of morning air. At just gone 0530 AM, dawn was slowly creeping in on the horizon, but Maya could still see some stars way up in the heavens as she craned her head out. Twilight was never her favourite; in fact, she hated being up this early. It made her think of her days during her PhD studies, staying up late analysing results and writing papers.

"Hey, hold on tight!" McNamara's voice came through an earpiece in her helmet, snapping her back to reality. She quickly popped her head back in and secured herself in the seat next to Daniel, who didn't seem to register her presence. It worried her that he was acting so odd.

"Is everything alright Daniel?" she turned to him, trying to get a glimpse of his eyes through his Hud.

"Everything's fine," he replied distractedly, his voice still slightly strained.

Maya didn't understand why he was being so distant, this wasn't like him.

 _'How do I even know what he's like anymore? Over a century has passed for him, whereas it's only been a few months for me since we last saw each other'_ she thought. As the VertiBird lifted off the ground and soared away from the Vault site, all Maya could think about was how much she'd grown accustomed to her life in the wastes, and whether she was making a mistake going back to her time…

* * *

Cold, like he never felt before in his life, spread through Daniel like fire. He was bleeding out fast. "Maya…" a faint gasp escaped his bloody lips as he forced his eyes open, forced his body to regain consciousness. Too much was at stake for him to die now without a fight. He looked around and tried to get up when he realised he was alone in the room, but the loss of blood made his body unresponsive to any significant movement. He could only crane his neck and move his left arm somewhat; there was no way for him to sit up let alone stand. Catching a glimpse of the emergency switch under his desk he got an idea. If he could activate the switch somehow, it would alert his personal security. He tried to crawl closer to the switch but it was no use, he barely had any sensation in his body. Shivering, he realised that a disruption to the switch's power line would also trigger the alarm. It made him feel glad he was paranoid enough to install a safeguard against its tampering. Pulling out his pistol from the inside pocket of his jacket and using the legs of his chair to help him aim at the cable, he managed to sever the connection after firing four shots before losing consciousness and drifting back into the black void…

* * *

White was resting in the recovery room of the Vault's medical wing. Once he was back in the Vault, Daniel made sure that White got the proper treatment to remove all his implants so that he may never be compromised by the other Founders again. His physical injuries would heal quickly, however the psychological scars from his actions would take many years to overcome. A part of White knew that what he did, the actions he took no matter how horrifying and inhumane, was necessary; he had to be the bridge between the Founding Fathers so that he could secretly relay information to Daniel as and when needed. But even he realised how close they had come to failing on several occasions.

A sudden commotion and urgent voices stirred him out of his contemplation. Several of the emergency response medics rushed down the hallway with someone in a gurney escorted by security. White could hear them all the way down to the surgery ward. A couple of scientists trailed behind looking extremely distraught; some with blood stains on their lab coats. White quickly limped to the door and grabbed one of the stricken scientists by the arm, pulling him into the room. "What happened?! What's going on?!" he demanded.

The grief-stricken scientist shook his head, "Someone tried to assassinate Dr. Hadden, that's all I know".

White's eyes widened. He let go of the man, who quickly rushed to his colleagues and several security staff, leaving White numb with the information. He had to find out who did this, and the only person who could tell him who did this was Daniel. Quickly making his way out the recovery room, he followed the urgent voices down the hall and into the surgery's observation room.

"Hey! STOP!" one of the security personnel ran up to him, blocking White from getting to Daniel.

"Out of my way! I need to find out who did this" White barked trying to walk around him, only to be met with a hard shove to the side.

"No one goes in, that goes especially for _you_ " the guard sneered. Luckily White's hide was too thick to take offence.

"Unless you know who did this to Dr. Hadden, you'd better get out of my way" White snarled at the guard. Luckily one of the surgeons who operated on White recognised him and intervened before the situation escalated. He escorted White into the surgery room, much to the dismay of the others.

"What is he doing here?! Get him out, we are about to put him under" the head surgeon snapped, but White paid him no attention. Daniel's weakened appearance took White by surprise; he had never seen him in such a weakened state.

"Sir, who did this?" he spoke as gently as he could, watching Daniel's eyes fighting to stay conscious.

Taking a few shallow breaths, Daniel attempted to speak, "J…Jon…"

"Jonathan?" White whispered, feeling his blood run cold. Daniel blinked slowly and gently dipped his head.

"Maya… Hangar bay…" Daniel managed to utter before the doctors started to kick White out.

"Unless you want his death on your head, you will leave this room _immediately_ " the head surgeon insisted.

"That's all I needed" White nodded and left the room as the surgeons anaesthetised Daniel and began the operation.

As quickly as he could, White rounded up security and ran to the hangar bay. Unfortunately, he was too late. The two VertiBirds with Maya and the others had already left, half an hour ahead of schedule. There was no doubt that Jonathan was on that craft with them. How he managed to convince the others to leave with him and leave Daniel behind was a mystery.

"Mother fucker", White spat menacingly under his breath. The other VertiBirds were just getting ready to depart before White commandeered one for himself and about half a dozen Vault military personnel that were accompanying him. They flew out at full speed in hot pursuit of McNamara to University point, almost clipping the side of the ceiling bay doors. For White, one thing was certain: if Jonathan was the other informant for the Founding Fathers, White could not allow him to complete his mission… Even if it meant facing the inevitable.


	34. Chapter 35: Portal To The Past

Finally, after an agonising five-hour flight and some close calls when they flew over a heavily populated super mutant territory, Maya and her group arrived at the site of the university. Strange, seeing it all again with the knowledge that she had gained over the past few months somehow made her feel more mature, prepared, and wiser. When she first arrived in this hellish future she was shell shocked and in denial. Also, being thrust into an interrogation and daring escape with high odds of fatality within days of her arrival did not help; but, with time and good company, she learned to adapt. Maya had come full circle, and having lived some time in this strange and new world, she found herself wondering whether she was making the right choice…

Getting back down onto the basement level of the ruined university was less complicated than she thought it would be. They were met by a team of engineers, who had arrived the previous day to clear out the rubble and secure entrance, to an elevator rig they had set up and guided them into the collider lab. It felt extremely eerie to be back.

Since they were deep underground and safe from radiation exposure, and the hallways and doors were quite narrow, there was no need for everyone to remain in their power armour. They left their armour safe and sound in the dilapidated control room overlooking their working area.

"Through here" Daniel led them past the double doors leading into the collider room. It looked like everything had been already set up for them, including a control station where they could create and monitor the correct parameters to send Maya back. However, there was a new addition in the room: what looked like a metal reinforced glass cubicle the size of a small phone box connected to the collider.

"Daniel, wait…" Maya jogged to keep up, "Can we talk, privately?".

Daniel relented with a sigh and the others went ahead and started setting up. Ibsen got to work on repairing the broken collider section with an engineer from Daniel's team.

"Make it quick Maya" he snapped.

His reaction made her flinch, "Is something the matter? You've been very curt and distant since we left".

"We're running out of time" Daniel shook his head, busying himself at a terminal, "You need to step into the chamber. We can send you back within the next ten or fifteen minutes".

"Why? What's the rush Danny?" Maya insisted, feeling a dread start to build in her. Something was wrong, this didn't sound like him.

Daniel looked like he was about to speak, but bit back the words. Instead he shook his head, insisted that everything was going according to plan and that she get into the chamber within the next couple of minutes. Realising that she wasn't going to get any answers from him, let alone speak with him, Maya half nodded and walked away. This wasn't how she had envisioned returning home.

* * *

 _"You have run out of time, force her into the containment!"_ The voice in Jonathan's head screamed, making him wince.

"Her friends are here, if they suspect anything is wrong they'll stop us" Jonathan whispered as quietly as he could.

 _"It doesn't matter! White is closing on your position you idiot"_ the voice yelled, but it didn't matter. If White was on his way, it could only mean one thing: Daniel was still alive…

 _"Looks like you failed to complete your task at the Vault. I don't have to tell you what will happen if you fail now."_

The warning made Jonathan's blood run cold. Taking in a shuddering breath, he gritted his teeth and made adjustments to the system's initiation code. Looking over in Maya's direction, he noticed her conversing with the NCR sniper. If only he could get her away from them for one second…

* * *

"Hey, what's wrong?" Boone asked worriedly.

Maya shook her head, "I don't know… I'm worried about Daniel, he doesn't seem like himself".

Boone's eyes shifted to Daniel who seemed to be fiercely focused on one of the terminals. He couldn't gauge what the problem was, but as Maya knew Daniel better than he did, Boone deferred to her better judgement.

"Did he say anything?"

"He said that he should have me back home in about 15 minutes" Maya replied.

The realization of how little time he had left with her washed over him like icy water. "That's good news then, isn't it?", he said, trying not to sound defeated. "It's what we came here to do", he added, his eyes searching hers.

Maya nodded, but a somewhat pained and confused expression crossed her face, "Yeah… I just… I don't know" she looked away, "Daniel, he… Seems a bit distant and distracted".

"Hmm…" Boone mused, unable to think of what to say, "Maybe he's just distracted with getting everything right so there's no chance of you getting stranded out of time…again".

Maya nodded in agreement, "Maybe you're right…" she mused. "Craig, I've been having second thoughts about going back. I know, it probably sounds stupid, but…there are people I've come to care about here". She looked up at him, searching for an excuse to stay.

Hearing her say that Boone's heart simultaneously felt joy and bitter sorrow. She was the first person he formed a true friendship with and felt deep affection for after Carla's death. And now, he was going to lose her too…

That painful thought felt like a kick in the stomach. He felt his heart in his throat and suddenly the simple act of breathing was a struggle, as though he had to make every conscious effort to inhale and exhale.

"No" Boone answered, "It doesn't sound stupid. I don't want to see you go either" he gently pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her, savouring the short time they had left, trying to burn every moment…every detail… with her in his mind. "But you know you have to go back. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you, I've lost too much… At least if you return home you'll be safe."

Maya sniffed, rubbing fresh tears out of her eyes. "Going back won't guarantee safety" she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist. She sank into his embrace, the warmth of his body and his arms around her were the only sure thing that made her feel safe and that everything was going to be okay.

"At least there are no monsters in your time like super mutants, or the threat of vicious animals, bloodthirsty tribes, or slavers" he said looking down at her, brushing the long strands of hair away from her forehead. She buried her face in his chest, not wanting him to see her upset.

"There are always monsters" she said with a sniffle, "What they look like is irrelevant".

Boone smiled, unable to argue with her sound logic. He gave her one last re-assuring squeeze before reluctantly relaxing his embrace, tracing his fingers down her arms to interweave them with hers. Deep down, he wished he could go with her…but that was not an option. He couldn't function in her world, not after all he had been through and everything he did. He was also under no illusion that he deserved anything other than what he got from this world. After all, his punishment was not yet over.

 _'Maybe this is it… My punishment… Learning to care again, only to have the one I care about be taken away…'_ he thought mournfully. The warmth of being with her and being happy made him want forgiveness even more. There was something important he wanted to say to her, something that kept getting pushed to the side over the past couple of days. But before he had a chance to muster up the courage to speak the words they were interrupted by Daniel.

"Maya, I need your final input at this terminal", Daniel called urgently from across the room, his words wedging between them. Maya gently pulled away from Boone, kissed his cheek and went over to sort the final details.

* * *

"I need you to input the frequency setting of the experiment you ran" Daniel pointed at a line of code flickering on the terminal's screen. The request confused her: Daniel knew all the parameters of the experiment they ran, why would he ask for them again?

 _'Maybe he has forgotten?'_ she thought, pushing any doubt to the side as she keyed in the values.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked him again, glancing at him as he moved at lightning pace from two different terminals and the collider. "Maybe we should get Ibsen here to help us?"

"No need, I'm fine" Daniel replied, tension in his voice, "We are ready, just a few more seconds".

"Why are we in such a rush?" Maya asked curiously, her attention focused on her nervous friend, "I thought we had plenty of time".

"When you arrived here you left a trail behind you. Particles and atoms from your time, and yourself, that have been floating between your time and ours" Daniel spoke swiftly, "They have been degrading ever since, shifted out of position by the movement of other atoms. If we do not hurry, we will lose the trail and you'll be stuck here".

This new information intrigued Maya. She wanted to ask to examine the data, but if Daniel was correct and she didn't get into the chamber before her trail dissipated forever into the ether, then this would have to be her home from now on.

 _'It wouldn't be such a bad thing'_ she thought, glancing over at Boone who was standing with McNamara and Ibsen at a monitoring computer about 20 feet away from them.

"All done on my end, it's time" Daniel responded as he opened the door to the cubicle for Maya, the low moan of the hinges snapping her back to reality. She completed the code, but before she could press _Enter_ a commotion of men yelling outside the double doors to the collider room caught her attention. Through the noise, Maya could swear she heard a familiar voice… A voice that made her skin crawl.

"Stop! Cut the power!" White's voice came into focus as he stormed into the room followed by several guards in power armour, "He's an infiltrator! He tried to assassinate Daniel!" he said pointing in Daniel's direction. McNamara and Boone immediately took aim and moved in front of Daniel and Maya to block his approach. When they realised he wasn't going to be deterred, Boone fired a shot that caught White in the shin. Suddenly, the world around her moved rapidly. Maya was shoved so hard into the cubicle that she fell and slid into the small enclosure, hitting her head hard on the corner of the metal re-enforced corner. Her ears were ringing from the collision and she could feel a warm trickle down her neck. Before she could regain her senses and get to her feet the door slammed shut in her face and a locking mechanism was engaged, followed by a high-pitched ringing that she imagined could only be the collider engaging.

Two bright flashes of light out of the door's window caught her attention and she staggered towards it. Maya could see McNamara's panicked face as his eyes met hers. He ran to Ibsen and, although Maya could see his mouth moving as he spoke, she couldn't hear anything.

 _'Room must be sound proof'_ she thought groggily, pressing the palms of her hands on her pulsating head.

She watched out of the window curiously, in a confused haze as she tried to piece together what was going. The scene outside her four walls brought her back to the grave situation she was in. White was bleeding and standing over Jonathan, who was sprawled on the floor like a rag doll, staring lifelessly into empty space. _'But... Where's Daniel?'_ Maya thought. White's words came flooding back. 'No, it can't be!' she thought in fear. Reaching out she tried to grasp for a handle, anything, to open the door. There was nothing from inside. Panic gripped her and she started hyperventilating, eyes darting from White, the guards in power armour, the lifeless corpse on the ground, Ibsen at a terminal with McNamara right by his side, and Boone…

His face came up to the window, and although his lips were moving Maya couldn't hear anything. He was frightened… she had never seen him afraid before.

"I can't hear anything!" Maya cried, looking desperately at him, "I can't hear what you're saying!" she pointed at her ears and shook her head, her hands still tracing the wall in front of her, leaving thin trails of blood from the cut to her head, hoping something like a handle would appear and she could escape. The room lit up, engulfing her from all sides and making her eyes burn. She grimaced and shut her eyes tight, pressing her forehead on the window. Feeling faint vibrations, she cautiously opened her eyes and saw Boone's unblinking green gaze focused on hers. He was only an inch away pounding his fist on the glass… but an inch might as well be a mile. His eyes kept following her frantic glances until she stopped and all she could do was focus on him. Smiling nervously, she focused on him, going over his features and memorising them, afraid that at any moment he will vanish. Watching his lips move, she could make out parts of what he was saying: _'…Will be alright Maya… get you out… Stay with me…_ '

She nodded, "Okay… okay" she sniffed and tapped her palm on the pane in acknowledgement. He tried to smile but Maya could tell he was still afraid. He placed his palm where the tips of her fingers were resting on the pane and brought his face so close to the glass that she could see the condensation of his breath on it. She wished more than anything that she could hear his voice.

 _'Maya… I need to tell you something…'_ his lips moved to fit the words. He hesitated for a moment, and something in his face changed… like a hardness in his eyes softening. Maya nodded to let him know that she was still there, still listening. A familiar deafening noise washed over her, the same kind she heard just seconds before she was thrown out of her own time. She winced, pressing the palms of her hands over her ears.

 _'Maya! I love you! Stay with me!'_ she could see Boone yell, but she couldn't do anything about it. The world around her started to fade and all she could see were streaks of light...

* * *

"NO! OPEN THE DOOR!" Boone screamed, slamming the glass pane with the butt of his rifle as hard as he could to no avail. The ground was shaking and for all they knew the world was falling apart around them, but Boone didn't care. His only thought was Maya.

"Ibsen?! We're losing her!" McNamara barked next to him as the Scribe furiously searched through the code.

"I'm sorry I can't do anything!" Ibsen replied frantically, "There's no command override, once that door was shut there was no going back". His hands were shaking as he desperately went through the computer code for the device, trying different variations of algorithms to reverse the process. "Wait! I found something!" He pointed at the screen, but as soon as he spotted the sequence he realised that Maya was in more danger than they thought. "Oh no, no no!"

"What?! Ibsen!" McNamara snapped in annoyance.

"Not now! No time" Ibsen brushed him aside, his fingers dancing on the keyboard. All of a sudden, the power went out and the chamber stopped pulsating, the light from inside fading into darkness and the ground stopped shaking. With a click the door unlocked itself and swung open, knocking Boone to one side. Frantically he found his footing and launched himself into the chamber, only to hit a wall. It was pitch black, and it wasn't until the head lamps from one of the guard's power armour turned on that he realised Maya was gone. They were too late…

McNamara took a few steps towards the chamber, his eyes wide as he tried to get used to the low light levels. One of the guards handed him a flashlight and he went to join Boone, thoroughly searching the chamber. All they found were small smears of Maya's blood on the ground and on the inside of the door.

"Ibsen…what happened?" he called out.

Taking a shuddering breath in, Ibsen explained what he had found embedded in the programming, "The code was altered… Must have been after we arrived. My only guess is that Jonathan was making alterations while we were prepping because this command wasn't here before. I'm sure of it, I checked the entire code last night".

"What did he do?", McNamara pressed, "Is Maya back in her time now, or…?"

Ibsen nodded, wiping the sweat off his brow, "She's back, but if I didn't spot this she would have had a slow death" he replied, his voice shaky. He went on to explain what he found, that the commands were overridden to trap Maya in a state of limbo between their time and hers.

McNamara shook his head, "That doesn't make any sense. Why?"

"I'm not sure…" Ibsen answered. But soon enough the answer was staring right in front of him. "Oh crap… Nolan, you're not going to like this".

Shaking his head in frustration, the Elder jogged over to Ibsen and studied the values on the screen, "What am I looking at? What does this mean?" he gestured.

"Maya was never from our past… She _is,_ however, from a different time in a parallel universe… Which means she will never be able to stop the war" Ibsen almost deflated at the realisation, "All that we've been through… Was for nothing… Nothing will change…."

"They tried to use her as a bridge, so they can gather information from her world" White interjected from across the room, "Technology, science, research, medicine have all stagnated in our world. But in Maya's, it's advancing at a rapid pace, and there is even technology on her side that is more advanced in some respects to our own. Don't you see?" he limped towards them, "If they had succeeded, they would have gathered all the information they would need to finish what they started"

"And what would that be?" Boone whispered menacingly, his gun drawn pointing at White's head.

White calmly turned to him, his cold grey eyes meeting his, "Why, to end humanity of course".

"But we stopped it, so they have failed" McNamara spat, making a move on White, "And what are you doing here?! You've betrayed all of us! Give me a good reason why we shouldn't just kill you now".

Boone pressed his pistol on the side of White's head.

White chuckled nervously and raised his arms slowly above his head, "I'm not going to stop you from that, I know what you all think of me... But _everything_ had to happen the way it did."

"Why?" McNamara sneered grabbing him by the collar of his uniform.

But before Boone could pull the trigger, the double doors flew open and a figure in an old and rusted T-45 power armour stormed in and a familiar voice called out, "Wait! Don't kill him!". The figure took off her helmet and everyone fell silent at the sight of the familiar long brown hair and blue eyes.

Boone lowered his gun and took a few hesitant steps towards her, his eyes wide in astonishment.

"Maya?"...


	35. Chapter 36: Science & Secrecy

Maya almost wasn't prepared for the impact that seeing Boone would have on her. She had been alone for so long that she was afraid she had forgotten what he and the others looked like. But seeing him again, almost as if nothing had happened, no time had gone by for him, made her heart tug. It felt as though they could pick up exactly where they left off. Only this time she wasn't the same helpless and naïve woman they knew when she first arrived.

"Wow…" she sighed, feeling her chest tighten and her eyes fixed on him, "this is weird… like a messed up déjà vu".

"What the hell just happened?" McNamara asked bewildered. He took a few hesitant steps towards her, "How did you –"

"I will explain everything as soon as this is all over" Maya promised him as she snapped back to the matter at hand, "But right now we're running out of time. I need your help".

"With what?" Ibsen asked confused.

"The Founding Fathers are setting their next stage into motion: worldwide distribution of the FEV compound to eliminate all human life. Guess where they're starting first?"

 _'New Vegas'_ McNamara thought in horror. His loyal Brothers and Sisters would have reached their new base and started setting up by now. "We have to warn them!"

Maya shook her head, "We have to stop the Founding Fathers, if this plan is initiated there is nowhere on this planet where we could go that would be safe", she replied urgently, "Nolan, we cannot split up, I need everyone on this. I can't do it alone. Believe me, I tried".

Every fibre in McNamara's body wanted to drop everything, get to his people and get them to safety; but if Maya was correct, and there was nowhere to hide…

"Alright, let's go", he relented, "But when this is all over –"

"I know" Maya nodded, "There'll be plenty of time to talk. Now, follow me, we're going to the sub-basement".

Though confused, the group did as they were asked after getting back into their power armour, including Maya who had opted to leave her old armour behind. Following her down a flight of stairs, the team entered a brightly lit round room with a low platform in the middle. Four metal rods with copper coils wrapped around them, placed equidistant from each other, encircled the rectangular platform. Several computer terminals were scattered around and Maya got to work on one of them.

"This wasn't here before….was it?" Ibsen asked confused as he glanced around studying the room.

"Right; Nolan, Ibsen, and White, please stand on the platform" Maya instructed, her head still hidden behind a terminal.

"Maya, why are we here? Irvine is waiting for us up top" McNamara asked hesitantly, squeezing onto the platform with Ibsen and White.

"This is a transporter, I've got a safe room in the Capitol with a receiver. Should send us there in one piece…I hope".

McNamara's eyes widened in apprehension, "You _hope_?"

"Yeah, well, only had a chance to test it once and it's not been on in a while, but should all still be in perfect functioning order", she answered distractedly, "I've been a bit busy with other things so didn't get a chance to run a proper diagnostic".

"Maya…maybe we should take the VertiBird" the elder suggested worriedly, but before he could get a response the equipment hummed to life and engulfed them in a dazzling light. In the blink of an eye, all three of them found themselves in a dark and dusty room. If it wasn't for their head lamps, they would have all topple over each other.

"We better get off the platform before the others decide to join us" White pointed out, stepping off the platform and walking to a computer console. McNamara and Ibsen followed close behind, not wanting to find out what would happen to them should that possibility occur.

"Where are we?" McNamara asked, looking around for possible clues to their location, but there were no windows and nothing to suggest an answer to his question.

"We'll find out soon enough. Maya and the others are on their way now", White replied, studying the changing values on the monitor.

He was correct. Sure enough, the machinery began to hum a familiar tune and, with a flash of light, Maya occupied the recently vacated platform with Boone and one of the guards.

"Two more incoming, the last guards who came with you White", said Maya as she took over on the console. The last two guards that were transported in were carrying Jonathan's body with them.

"I would have left him to rot in that hole", McNamara stated coldly, but a stern look from Maya made him feel uncomfortable and he averted his gaze from hers.

"He had no choice. They have his family" she stated flatly, removing Jonathan's decoy device from the inside jacket pocket and snapping the tube open on her thigh, collecting a seemingly insignificant small circuit board from the inside.

"Funny. I never pinned him as a family man" White quipped.

Maya took out a scalpel and, seeing the confused and concerned looks on their faces, explained that she needed to get to the implant under his skin behind his ear. Extracting the implant, she took a scanning device out of her military backpack and carefully connected the implant and the circuit board with it. It took her a couple of minutes to tune her device and crack the frequency the Founding Fathers were using.

"Got you now you little shits", she sneered, entering the co-ordinates into her Pip-Boy.

"What now?" asked Boone.

Maya turned to him, placing the scanner in his hand, "Now we dismantle Vault-Tec…"

* * *

"I believe I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: this was a BAD idea!", Ibsen yelled over the sound of submachine gun fire, ricocheting bullets, and explosions as the team took cover behind derelict cars and five-foot-tall slabs of concrete debris. They were about a mile away from the main Vault-Tec headquarters before they were ambushed by at least a dozen tankbots and Assaultrons, and following close behind them were several enemy fighters in X-01 power armour. Luckily for them, Maya still had one plasma grenade left. Waiting until the enemy bots were almost all clustered together on their approach to the group, Maya pulled the pin and lobbed the grenade right in the middle of them. With a blinding flash the weapon exploded, damaging at least half of the robots enough to cause a secondary explosion.

"Here! Follow me!" Maya yelled over the rumble as bits of debris started raining around them, leading the team to a large open manhole.

One by one they dropped into the sewage system with a splash. The environment around them was toxic and foul, but luckily they had their environmental filters in their power armour.

"Come on, we can't stop", Maya encouraged them, pushing through the knee-deep muck, "We're almost there".

"I don't mean to dampen the mood, but you realise that this place is most likely crawling with ghouls?" McNamara whispered next to her.

"I'm counting on it", Maya answered confidently.

"Maya, we're not equipped for this. We can't fight the sentries and the ghouls at the same time, we don't have nearly enough ammo. I'm certain we've already depleted half of our supplies in our fight just now!" he hissed, grabbing hold of her arm. "We need to re-think this".

But Maya gently pulled away and pressed forward without responding.

"No going back now" Boone said, walking up to him, "We knew that the second we went through the transporter".

Although McNamara didn't want to admit it to him, Boone was right. They were already too deep in enemy territory to pull back now. With a sigh of resignation, McNamara took up the rear of the group, staying close behind Ibsen.

* * *

The sewage system snaked and curved under the streets, but Maya was certain they were headed in the right direction. Keeping an eye on her PipBoy readings, she guided them to a doorway that lead them through and down to the underground metro system. Soon as they got through, she stopped and crouched behind a newspaper dispenser, the others right on her heel.

She craned her head, listening for anything ahead of them.

"What's up?" Boone asked, moving close to her.

"Shh…. Ghouls up ahead", she replied. She could hear their faint wheezing and footsteps about fifty feet away from them. She could see light just around the corner as well. Shifting a few feet forward, she got a better view ahead of them. A powerful explosion at some point must have broken a large section of the road above them, because a long segment of road tarmac provided a steep ramp to the surface.

"We go back then" White suggested, but Maya shook her head.

"This is the perfect distraction", and before anyone could persuade her otherwise, Maya pulled out a Molotov, lit the cloth with a lighter in her pocket, moved closer to the opening and hurled the bottle as far as she could. It smacked the top edge of the road ramp and burst into a bright flame, drawing the attention of the ghouls to it…a particularly large hoard as well.

They waited until the last of the ferals vacated the area before moving forward.

McNamara was impressed with Maya's quick thinking, as were the others. _'We might just make it through this'_ he thought optimistically.

They reached the end of a tunnel and Maya reached back into her bag, taking out a block of C-4.

"Is there anything you _didn't_ bring with you?" White asked sarcastically.

"A Fatman" she answered distractedly as she set up the explosive in a hollow in the debris mound that was blocking the passage through the tube, "Not that I didn't want to, it's just too heavy and cumbersome".

Taking cover in a large janitor's supply office several feet away, crouching low with their backs pressed against the wall in anticipation of the coming explosion, Maya flipped the switch on her triggering device and a deafening rumble of hurled concrete and other debris made their ears ring. Clouds of opaque dust hindered their vision for a few seconds before it started to settle, revealing a cleared railway path with supply train almost 200 feet away.

"Quickly! We don't have a lot of time" Maya urged them on.

They quickly sprinted down the tracks to the train that was waiting for them. The explosion attracted the attention of the ghouls who had made their way back down into the metro and chased after them in a frenzied swarm.

Leaping through the open doors, the team piled inside the cockpit while Maya connected her PipBoy to the controls and activated the train. With a hiss the doors quickly slid shut, and just in time too. If there was even a second of hesitation, or a malfunction with the doors, the ghouls would have poured inside and ripped them all to shreds.

"Gah!" Ibsen exclaimed in fright as one of the mutated creatures lunged at the window next to him, "I _hate_ ferals!"

With a harsh screech, the train began to move and pick up speed quickly. Sickening squelches and groans were heard as the wheels of the train trapped and crushed some of the ghouls around them. In less than ten seconds they were hurtling down the tracks at over 250 mph.

"What now?" McNamara asked as he stood up, trying to steady himself.

Removing several small devices out of her bag, Maya placed them on the driver's panel in front of her. "In a few minute's time we'll arrive at Vault-Tec headquarters. This is just an unused supply tunnel so security won't be a problem, apart from maybe some sentry bots and turrets. I'll hack into the system, open the back door, and deploy several local EMP grenades to neutralise the bots" she stated, "and _then_ , the fun begins".

"I don't mean to interrupt, but how the hell are you going to hack Vault Headquarters", Ibsen asked dubiously.

"I've been here before. Was captured but managed to escape" Maya answered, fiddling with her mysterious gadgets, "I embedded a backdoor activation code into their system to let me in with the proper voice activated passcode".

White's eyes widened, "Wait…You're B-51?!" he asked incredulously. Maya nodded hesitantly, wincing at the brutal memory of her escape.

"The hell are you talking about?" McNamara asked concerned.

"She's the only captured subject to escape the headquarters" White answered, "All subjects, or prisoners, locked up in Vault-Tec headquarters are given alphanumeric designations. None have ever escaped…except for her".

"You know, this _really_ isn't a good time to reminisce about the past" Maya said as the train started to decelerate on their approach.

As the train stopped, a prompt was issued on the train's terminal. Maya picked up a microphone attached next to it and uttered the passcode, "Open Sesame", and the door slowly sprang to life, shaking off a tonne of dust as it opened to reveal a dark tunnel.

The group stared at her in confusion.

"I've always wanted to say that" she grinned sheepishly.

As the train entered the supply platform, Maya and her team picked up their gear and made their way into the heart of the facility.


	36. Chapter 37: Right Behind You Baby

Using Maya's information of the base, and her tech knowledge, the group was able to infiltrate the headquarters without many issues. There were one or two close calls with a guard and a scientist, but White and McNamara pacified them before they were able to alert their friends. Maya was also keeping close tabs on the automated security systems, like surveillance cameras and microphones that were scattered in the corners in almost every room. Progress was slow due to this as she had to hack every surveillance system they came across, but they were steadily progressing to their target: the Founding Father's stasis room. To get there, they needed to gain access to the elevator that would take them straight down.

"What's taking so long?" Ibsen whispered behind Maya.

"Shhh!" Boone elbowed him in the ribs as he kept a lookout in front of them.

"Almost there" Maya whispered confidently as the screen on her Pip-Boy flickered, going through various algorithm permutations to determine the passcode for the elevator. "And…we're through!" the doors slid open and they all rushed inside, eager to disappear from plain sight. As the doors closed, everyone sighed in relief.

"I can't be the only one who thinks that was too easy?" Ibsen questioned after a thoughtful moment, "There is no way we weren't detected".

"Maybe we just got lucky" Boone replied, loading more bullets in his silenced pistol.

White shook his head, "No, they definitely know we're here. Nothing goes past them without their knowledge".

All Maya could do was listen to her heart pounding in her chest as the voices of the others blurred into white noise behind her. She didn't know what was coming up ahead, but she had to keep her calm so she could get all of them out alive and safe. She was desperately hoping that she had taken every precaution that they weren't detected, but a heavy knot in her gut was telling her that Ibsen was right… Nothing gets past them. Somehow she couldn't help feeling like this was the end...

Feeling a gentle weight press on her shoulder, she flinched and turned around, only to see Boone's worried expression bearing down on her.

"Maya, you alright?" he asked.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear her team talking to her. "Yeah, fine" she nodded, feeling a chill up her spine.

"Do we proceed according to plan?" McNamara asked, "It's not too late to make some changes".

Maya shook her head, "No, we proceed" she rubbed the back of her neck trying to calm her nerves. "Oh! One thing though: Ibsen, pass me your Pip-Boy". The scribe unlatched his device and tossed it to her. Plugging them together via a connection cable, Maya began a data dump of her files to Ibsen's device, which took less than a couple of seconds thanks to her compression method. She nodded when it finished and tossed it back to him, "Just in case…"

Boone wanted to ask her what she meant, but he felt the elevator slow to a stop. Before the doors slid open, everyone took their positions, weapons at the ready.

* * *

The hallway leading to the stasis room was ominously dark and cold. They couldn't risk turning on their headlamps as that would attract enemy attention, even though it appeared the area was abandoned. The group steadily made their way forward. Once they got into the room, the lights on the high ceiling slowly increased in brightness, startling McNamara and the others.

"Don't worry, it's just the motion sensors detecting our presence. It's automatic" Maya re-assured them.

A tall structure that looked like stacked computer servers, almost ten feet from top to bottom, was situated in the middle of the room on a metal grate platform.

"What the hell is that?!" Ibsen whispered in awe, "I've never seen anything like this…"

"You wouldn't have, this technology isn't native to your universe" Maya replied as she climbed up the metal stairs and analysed the structure, "It's the main server that controls the stasis chambers of the Founding Fathers. Begin accessing the terminals, extract and save as much information as you can before wiping the servers" she added.

"And, where are they?" he cocked an eyebrow, referring to the Founding Fathers.

"The level below us" Maya replied, "But you don't want to go down there. They're a bunch of withered husks by now in loin cloths. We can do everything we need to do from here".

Everyone immediately got to work. Having gone over the plan several times, each one of them knew exactly what to do and where to go. They had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. Meanwhile, Maya was planning their escape, ensuring that on her command the system would provide a clear passage for them to the surface. It was more difficult than she had anticipated.

"Looks like you guys were busy after I escaped" she muttered under her breath as her fingers danced on the keyboard in front of her, her eyes scanning every line of code, "additional firewalls, tripwires and security, eh? Almost as if you were paranoid I'd be back". The thought made her chuckle. As she was embedding the last crucial bit of code into the system that would initiate the self-destruct, fry the entire system, including communication so they couldn't get a warning out to those they've influenced, she noticed a flicker in the screen. To an untrained eye, they might have mistaken it as just a random glitch or a refresh, but Maya realised they were in trouble. Taking a deep breath in to calm and collect herself, she realised there was only one possible solution to get the others out alive. She looked around and it seemed the others were almost done.

"How's it going?" she asked, striding up to Boone who was transferring the last bit of data off his terminal.

"Good" he nodded, "Going exactly as you planned".

"Good" she nodded with a smile, trying to keep her voice calm, "Remember to wipe the system with the magnet after you finish" she added before moving to McNamara, who was busying himself at another terminal across the room on his own.

"Nolan, I need you to do something for me" she whispered…

* * *

Boone safely stashed the storage device with the backed-up data in his backpack before destroying the computer with the powerful magnet by swiping it over his entire working area, even though Maya said he only needed to do it on his server.

 _'Better safe than sorry'_ he thought, pleased with himself.

"Alright, time to go", McNamara called softly, not wanting to yell in case there were any guards around. Everyone followed suit, apart from Maya, who was still working at her console.

"Wait up, Maya's not done yet" he called behind them, "Hey, everything okay?" he walked up to her and stood at the base of the metal stairs leading up the platform.

Maya nodded without looking at him, "Go with the others, I'm just finishing up. Don't worry, I'll catch up".

Boone shook his head, "No, we do this by the book like you said, we're not separating now".

"Craig, please. Go" she turned, her steady gaze meeting his, "I promise, I'll be right behind".

"Let's go Boone", McNamara called behind him.

His gut was telling him something was wrong, and after many years of experience, he learned not to ignore his instincts. "No" Boone hissed, "This is not what we planned. We all go together, you said that yourself" his pleading eyes met hers.

"Craig… Go", she pleaded, trying desperately to keep her voice calm. But Boone wouldn't listen. He just stood there waiting, his eyes pleading with her.

"What's wrong?" he questioned, "Something must have happened…?"

After a hesitant pause, Maya nodded, "I'll be able to fix it from here and make sure you don't run into trouble on the way up, but you _all_ have to go. Now!"

Stubbornly, Boone shook his head, "I'm not losing you again". Just as he was about to climb the stairs to her, he felt a searing pain on the back of his head and the world around him disappeared into darkness…

* * *

Fading in and out of consciousness, Boone caught flashes of light, movement, and sounds. He vaguely recollected an image of the group dragging him down a hallway, then onto a strange aircraft he thought was a VertiBird…although it only had one propeller at the top. It was all jumbled together and didn't make sense, but there were gunshots throughout the whole ordeal. Then nothing….

It was an odd sensation for him, being paralysed that is, and wholly dependent on the four people that were with him. Wait… No… there were only three. Why were there only three? Someone was missing.

 _"Craig… Go"_

'Maya?...'

 _"I promise, I'll be right behind"_

'Maya!'

His eyes flew open, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. "Maya!" he called as his blurry vision started coming into focus. A team of individuals in a white coats rushed to his side, one of them with Mohawk hair was pushing him back down while another was preparing a syringe.

"Get off me!" he screamed, trying to get up even though the pain in his head was excruciating and threatening to incapacitate him yet again. Feeling a sting in his right thigh, he couldn't fight the effects of the sedative and drifted back into the abyss…

* * *

The faint hum of a flickering light and an uncomfortable feeling in his lower back finally roused Boone out of his deep sleep. Blinking the dried crust that had formed on his eyes away, he squinted as he allowed his vision to adjust to the painfully bright lights in the room. There was a figure sitting next to him, but Boone couldn't yet tell who it was as his vision was still out of focus and his mind cloudy and confused. It seemed that whoever it was, they were asleep; a book splayed open on their face as their head was tilted back, a faint snore escaping the man's mouth every couple of breaths. Boone tried to speak to get the man's attention, but that felt even worse than opening his eyes. His mouth was so parched it felt as though he had swallowed half of the Mojave Desert. There was a glass of water sitting on the bedside table next to him, but as he reached for it he must have missed, for the glass evaded his outstretched hand and smashed on the concrete floor. It successfully roused his visitor though.

"What? I'm up!" he sputtered, twitching awake and sending his worn book tumbling to the floor. "Boone! You're awake!". It was Ibsen.

"Water" Boone tried to say but the words that escaped him sounded more like a wheeze.

"Oh, yes! You must be thirsty. Hold on" he got him another glass of water and helped him sit up so he could drink.

Boone downed the glass in three gulps, feeling the coolness of the water rehydrating him almost as soon as it touched his lips. It tasted so sweet… He couldn't remember the last time water tasted that good.

"Where am I?" he panted, trying to catch his breath after the drink, "What… what happened?" he tried to pull himself up and felt a painful tug on his unmentionables. Wincing, he flipped the blanket over, much to Ibsen's uncomfortable dismay, and saw a catheter leading from underneath his gown to a bag at the end of the bed. It was practically full. "How long was I out?"

Averting his gaze away from Boone as he flipped the blanket back over his nether regions, Ibsen began to answer his questions. "You're safe in the new Brotherhood of Steel base, we were successfully able to avert global catastrophe, and you've been unconscious for about 4 days".

Boone stared at him in confusion, "What the hell happened?!".

"Well, you, um… Refused to listen to Maya or McNamara and he… well…." Ibsen couldn't stop shifting his gaze away from Boone, "He knocked you out with a blow to the head. You've had a concussion".

"What?!" Boone yelled, causing the familiar searing pain to return to his head and shoot down his neck and upper back. He collapsed onto his pillow and pressed his palms on his temples to try to stop the pain. "Where's Maya?"

Ibsen's saddened expression and aversion to meet Boone's eyes conveyed the news Boone desperately didn't want to believe. All he could do was lie there and feel the grief swallow him.

"How could you just leave her?" he sobbed quietly, his voice cracking as the pressure built up in him like an overflowing dam, "After everything we survived…". If only he could have been there with her in those last moments. Images of her all alone in that hell hole trying to stop the FEV outbreak on her own flooded his mind. He wondered what things went through her head in those final moments. The fact that he was denied the chance to be there with her filled him with an agonizing rage.

"Boone… I cannot apologise enough… I know what you're feeling –"

"No… you don't, you never will" he pressed his palms into his eyes until they hurt, trying to stop the tears, "Get out…".

Ibsen didn't want to leave his side, afraid that in his current state of mind he might do something regrettable; but it was evident that staying was also causing Boone a lot of stress.

"Alright… I'll be nearby if you need anything", he stood up, ready to leave. Then he remembered that Maya had transferred some files over onto his PipBoy, and there was one file he dared not open labelled 'Boone'.

"I'll leave this here with you", he gently placed his PipBoy on the bedside table for Boone, "There's a file in there with your name; I think Maya left you some recordings".

As soon as the door closed behind Ibsen, Boone reached over and grabbed the PipBoy, frantically flipping to the correct file. He felt like he was losing his mind all over again, and this last piece of her would stop him from tumbling into the abyss. He pressed play on the recording and hearing her voice felt like a salve offering sweet relief.

 _"Hey Craig, listen… I'm sorry for what is about to happen… I think I've gotten to know you pretty well. So um, don't blame Nolan for the headache… I asked him to drag you out if necessary. **nervous laughter**. I, um, have to stay and stop the launch of the FEV compound. The bastards were craftier than I originally thought. They built a Deadman's switch in case of tampering, so someone who knows how to bypass their systems needs to stay to counter the commands… I know that after all you've been through, leaving me alone to finish the job isn't gonna be easy... but it needs to be done. There's so much I wanna say right now but I'll keep it short and sweet. You know, when I returned to my home, things were very complicated and…difficult… I couldn't adjust to my old life before this… Not after seeing you through the chamber, after your last words to me… I had to get back. You were all I could think about… I'm sorry that we didn't have enough time…"_

Tears were flowing freely down Boone face, but he dared not stop or pause the recording. He wanted to hear it all as if she were right there with him.

 _"Funny… I've travelled through parallel dimensions and time, and there's still not enough time… but I have to get to the stasis pods and connect myself to the system so I can gain full control. I have to run down soon and, well… I think I'll be cutting it a little close on this one. No matter what happens, I just want you to know that I love you too… I always have."_

Boone tried to muffle a guttural cry at those words and cradled the PipBoy in his lap, rewinding the recording to the beginning and listening on repeat until he passed out from exhaustion and grief.

 _"I'll see you later…"_


	37. Chapter 38: Of Love And Loss

**_***4 days ago***_**

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Maya cursed under her breath while working furiously at her console. The alarms blaring all around her made it impossible to think clearly, "This isn't working!". The system had detected that Maya embedded an auto destruct command and had initiated base-wide evacuation protocols, unlocking all the doors and completely overriding her original commands that had ensured safe passage for her team. Although they were more than halfway to the surface, the guards had unrestricted access to chase them down.

"Think!" she muttered, her eyes scanning the map on the monitor, following the progress of McNamara and the others. Suddenly it came to her. She didn't need to get them all the way to the surface, if she could just re-direct them to the hangar…

"Ibsen! Nolan! If anyone can hear me, head to the hangar bay! It's two levels above you, take the staircase 50 feet away from you on the right!" she instructed over her walkie.

"Maya!" McNamara's crackling voice came through, "We're not leaving without you!"

She could hear gunfire on their end, "Don't argue with me! Just go! I'll find a way out for myself".

"You better! Otherwise Boone will shoot me when he comes to" McNamara added.

Despite her dire situation, his message made her smile, "I will… Now go! You've got ten minutes before the base blows!".

Taking her walkie with her, Maya leaped down the stairs and made a bee line for the stasis room below her. She was hoping she could find another way around this problem, but there was no alternative; terminal commands were no longer being accepted and she was left with only one option: merge her consciousness with the system. The last time this happened to her she was being tortured for information by the Founding Fathers.

She stormed inside the room and began de-activation procedure from the control panel of the first pod she ran into. One of the occupants, an unsavoury character she recognised by the name of William König, opened his eyes and gazed at her in terror.

"Ah, William, so nice to see you awake" she sneered, "I see you've put your paranoia to good use. Don't worry though, this isn't going to be painful… Which is more than I can say about the way you treated me".

Suddenly the panel she was inputting the codes into turned off and all access was denied.

"You will never succeed" he wheezed defiantly.

"There's more than one way to kill you" she spat coldly and started pulling the air filtration tubing out of the side of his pod, gleefully watching him panic. Finding the seam of the pod door, Maya began to pry it open. It was almost too easy with her power armour on. A shrill hiss told her that the containment of the pod was broken and, with a final mighty pull, the door flung open. Maya grabbed him by his withered and frail throat and crushed it, feeling a sickening crack as her power armour suit snapped his neck. Tossing his wasted body aside, she connected William's merging device to her temple and was instantly transported to the virtual world.

* * *

A sweet wind blew through her hair, warm sunshine on her skin, birds chirping cheerfully in the distance. Maya opened her eyes and was surrounded by lush beauty, a synthetic world untouched by nuclear war. She was standing just outside the gates to a large estate house, holding a newspaper. One of her hands was on the ornate iron wrought gate with delicate gold filigree just outside the house, as though she was in the middle of closing it. But it wasn't her hand…

When she looked down, it was very clearly a man's hand. Dropping the paper she was carrying, Maya held both hands up in front of her to examine them. In a panic, she walked up to the very expensive sports car in front of her and examined her features in the reflective glass.

"Fuck…" she whispered as she watched a much younger William staring back at her in bewilderment. It was her reflection…

 _'My consciousness was downloaded to the mainframe but with his physical appearance'_ she thought, _'Oh, this'll come in handy'_.

Suddenly a panicked stout man in a houndstooth suit came running out of another estate house opposite hers and right up to her.

"William! Thank God, what the hell is going on out there?" he huffed, looking extremely concerned.

She smiled, trying to appear normal, "What do you mean?"

"God damn it William! This isn't a joke! I saw you phase out, what's going on?" the man persisted urgently. Maya tried to think of a reasonable response. Although she wanted nothing more than to do to him what she did to William, Maya needed to get the code from at least two of the Founders to stop the FEV from being dispersed.

"Power fluctuations. I was disconnected for a second" she replied confidently, "I'm going to need you and the others to go to your terminals and access the mainframe to shut down the FEV launch".

The man laughed, "You gotta be messing with me William".

"I wish I was" Maya lied, "But we've captured the infiltrators and we need to interrogate them before we proceed. Who knows what they did to sabotage our plans".

"You're right" the man nodded, looking convinced, "I'll round up the others".

"Good man. Say, I'll come with you in case anyone has questions" she added, following the stout man as he called up the other Founders. No one seemed to question her words and they all complied with the request. She also requested that they return terminal access for the others outside, which also went unchallenged.

 _'If I can get out in the next couple of minutes, I might just have enough time to reach the hangar'_ she thought optimistically.

"Alright, that's great. I'll go back to my own terminal and check the progress with our technicians" she said, clasping her hands together.

"Of course" one of the Founders answered, "Give us an update in an hour, we want to proceed with the final stage to monitor results before we expire".

The last remark made Maya's blood run cold.

 _'They're dying'_ she realised, _'And they'd rather watch the world burn than relinquish control'_.

"Will do" Maya nodded, trying her best not to allow the disgust she was feeling inside to bubble to the surface.

Heading straight for William's house, Maya initiated the exit procedure and in a split second she was back in her own body in the real world.

* * *

"Got you now you sons of bitches" Maya panted, a searing hatred for everything these monsters stood for and their blatant disregard for all life fuelling her motives. Initiating the shutdown protocol for all the stasis pods, she effectively euthanized all the occupants before sprinting out of the room and through the hallway where she and her team had been through less than half an hour ago. She pressed the elevator button but the system was not responding.

"Shit!" she hissed, forcing the doors open and scanned for doors above her. She could just about see the base of the elevator at the top some 100 feet above. Immediately Maya started climbing up towards it, very much aware that she had less than 3 minutes to get to the surface before the auto destruct initiated. Climbing on top of the elevator, she managed to get inside through the access panel on the top and through the doors leading into the hallway. Thankfully there were no personnel on the floor she was in, apart from several bloody bodies of security personnel which she could only assume were the result of a skirmish with McNamara.

Following the map on her PipBoy, Maya sprinted for the hangar.

"Nolan! If you can hear me I'm on my way to the hangar!" she panted, but only heard static through her walkie, "Nolan?! Ibsen?! Can anyone hear me?".

Nothing…

"God damn it" she muttered, feeling a kick of adrenaline surge through her veins.

 _'I'm not going to die in here!'_ she said to herself, desperately trying to keep ahead of the ticking clock.

Just as she reached the hangar bay, she felt a deep rumble and the ground shaking from underneath. The autodestruct was initiated! Walls around the hangar began to crack and the ceiling was crumbling.

"Not yet! Not fucking yet!" she yelled, diving into the first aircraft she came across which looked very much like a cross between a VertiBird and a Black Hawk helicopter.

As the motors whined to life, gunshots ricocheted off Maya's power armour and the side of the craft. She turned to face in the direction where the bullets were coming from, spotting a couple of guards who hadn't managed to escape yet charging in her direction.

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SHIT!" she screamed at them, turning the turret controls in their direction and firing, watching in horror as the minigun mounted underneath the craft ripped through the men like they were made from butter. The floor started caving in and Maya forced the craft to take off. A high-pitched whine emanated from the engine as it fought against gravity to keep them in the air. One of the hangar doors on the ceiling came loose, crashing down into the abyss where she was standing not even a minute ago. The rumbling intensified, and secondary explosions started going off, launching debris and rubble at her, hitting the craft and catching one of the rotary blades as she was making her ascent.

Maya screamed as her craft lunged sideways. She was so close, she could see sunlight from outside.

"Just a bit…more" she exclaimed through gritted teeth, trying to keep control of her flight trajectory with a severely damaged tail propeller that threatened to send her spinning out of control.

Just as she had cleared the bay doors, the devastating blow of the explosion beneath her reached her craft and engulfed it in flames, like a beast out of the deepest recesses in the Earth came up to snatch her and drag her back down.

Alarms blaring, Maya tried to force the craft to gain altitude, but it was no use.

"Pull up! Pull up!" the alarm warned her as her craft was caught in a vortex of fire and the engines stalled. Maya felt her body leave her seat as she started to fall and the light above her was snuffed out…

* * *

 ** _***Present day***_**

Sitting on the edge of his bed in the med bay, Boone gently ran his index finger over the play button on Ibsen's PipBoy, wondering whether to play the message again… A pistol lying next to him on the covers.

He must have listened to Maya's final message at least a dozen times since he woke up an hour ago. It wasn't helping him anymore. Instead, listening to it was a brutal reminder that she wasn't there anymore. There was the familiar emptiness in his heart, the same one he experienced ten years ago… It made him wonder if it was even worth hanging around until the end of the day.

A gentle knock on his door roused him from his despair. Stashing his gun underneath the mattress, he opened the door only to find McNamara standing in front of him. He didn't have the energy to greet him, let alone speak.

"Hey Boone, mind if I come in?"

Boone nodded, letting McNamara come inside.

"I'm… I, uh…" the Elder began to speak, but found it difficult to choose the right words. A glint of light reflecting off a metal object under Boone's mattress caught his attention. He realised quickly that it was a pistol and what Boone's intentions were.

"I have a great idea, let's go get some breakfast" he said with an urgent feeling that he had to get him out of that room.

Though Boone protested at first, he was too tired and numb to argue, so he followed McNamara to the mess hall. The Elder loaded up their plates and they sat down together at a table in the empty hall. Boone looked at his plate, feeling no desire to tuck into his meal. He noticed that McNamara had given him a plate of Brahmin steak with instamash and steamed gourd and banana yucca chunks. Instantly his mind went back to what Maya said to him at McCarren after they rescued her from the Legionaries.

"I don't eat meat" he said numbly, pushing his plate slightly to one side.

McNamara looked at him in surprise, "Why not?"

"Maya stopped, so I said I would too…" he sighed, rubbing his sore eyes.

"Look…I know what you're going through, Boone…" McNamara began, "You can't just give up".

Boone exhaled in frustration, "You could never know what I'm going through" he said, his voice hoarse and exhausted.

"Yes, I do" he set aside his knife and fork and rested his elbows on the table as he began to recollect his own experience. "When my wife died at HELIOS-One, I thought my world ended" he continued, a mournful expression on his features that Boone had never seen before, "And…in a way…it did. But I didn't give up. I didn't let those thoughts consume me, because I had people counting on me. We have to carry on Craig."

Before Boone could retort, a message over the PA system notified the requested presence of the Elder. McNamara got up and made his way to the command centre, dragging a reluctant Boone with him.

"What's the word Ibsen?" he asked, surprised to find his command room so busy with activity, "What's going on?".

"You're not going to believe this!" the scribe answered happily.

"I take it it's good news?"

"Better!" Ibsen turned on McNamara's personal terminal.

"Hello Elder, how do you like your new base?" Daniel's voice came through the speakers clearly, just as if he were there in the room with them.

"Dr. Hadden?" McNamara asked astounded, "This is a swell surprise! The base is perfect, thank you for allowing us to have it. I take it you have made a full recovery?"

"Almost. But I'm not just calling to check in on you. I've received some encouraging information from my search and rescue teams in the Vault-Tec headquarters area".

Boone's heart skipped a beat.

"We found Maya…"

* * *

Boone was the first person to jump on the VertiBird Daniel had sent out to pick them up. He was overjoyed that Maya was still alive, but still fearful. Life and experience had taught him to expect the worst when it came to his hopes and desires. He kept going over in his mind what he would say to her when they got a chance to speak alone, but he was finding himself more inclined to imagine holding her tightly and never letting go.

The trip to Daniel's vault lasted an agonising 4-hour flight, even with Boone begging and cursing at the pilots to fly faster. When they entered the medical ward, they were forced to wait another couple of hours while Maya underwent surgery. Luckily Daniel came by to keep them company and tell them everything that had happened.

"Good to see you again you two" Daniel nodded at Boone and McNamara, "I'm sorry I didn't inform you of the news sooner. I had only just recovered from my ordeal less than 24 hours ago".

"You're looking rather well" McNamara exclaimed, shaking Daniel's hand, "From what White told us, I thought the worst had come to pass".

Daniel laughed, "For a while, so did I. But luckily, we have some of the best doctors on the face of the planet here. You wouldn't believe the number of surgeries I had to undergo. On the bright side, I have a brand-new spine! Sorted my back ache permanently" he chuckled.

"How is she?" Boone asked concerned.

Daniel shrugged, "Well… She's suffered third degree burns to 70% of her body, multiple lacerations, a concussion, several broken ribs and a broken ankle, but she'll recover a lot faster than I did", he smiled, placing a hand on Boone's shoulder, "She will be as good as new before you know it. Good thing she was wearing her new power armour as well. That old scrap she had before would never have survived".

Boone nodded, relieved that Maya was going to be okay. He sank back down into his seat, running his fingers through his hair. McNamara was more concerned though.

"Third degree burns to 70% of her body?!" he winced at the thought of how much pain she would have been in, but Daniel waved his worries away.

"We've got the best doctors working on her. They were able to regenerate her epidermis as good as new. Her hair though…" he cocked his head, "Well, I just hope she likes a pixie cut".

They spent the next several hours in the med ward visitor's room, waiting for the word from the doctors. At around 9 PM a nurse walked in and announced that she could have visitors. Boone sprang up and ran down the hall, into the room where Maya lay peacefully, connected to an array of medical equipment that were administering medicine and monitoring her health. Taking the seat next to her, he gently took her hand in his and squeezed it lightly.

Maya's brow furrowed, and she began to wake, slowly blinking her eyes.

"Craig?... That you?" she murmured, looking up at him in a daze.

Boone burst into tears of joy, with the biggest grin on his face she had ever seen. It was contagious, she felt the corners of her lips curve into a smile as well.

"Yeah" he sighed, feeling a bubble of laughter coming up, "It's me. McNamara's here too".

Maya smiled, "You didn't shoot him…. good".

Boone chuckled, pulling up her hand to his lips to kiss, "Not yet".

She laughed, wincing in pain, "Ow, ah! It hurts to laugh".

"From what the doc told us, you broke several ribs so that's not a surprise" he said, his brow wrinkled with concern that he caused her discomfort, "I'll try not to make too many jokes".

Seeing her alive, and smiling, made him want nothing more than to be by her side forever.

"Your hair got a bit singed though" he said, feigning regret. He thought it really suited her though.

"What?!" Maya asked, her eyes widening a bit, reaching with one hand to feel her hair, "Where? I don't see it".

"Well… you _can't_ see it, you have a pixie cut now".

Maya gasped, petrified, "Hand me a mirror!" she tapped her head, horrified at the reduction in her hair length. She was growing those damn locks for years!

"Honestly Maya, after what you've just been through, you're worried about your hair?"

Taking a moment to think about it, Maya realised he was right. She lifted the neckline of her gown and peaked down at her chest. "Oh, thank God, the girls are still there".

Boone burst out laughing, burying his red face in his palms.

"I'll need you to check other bits and make sure they're all where they're supposed to be" she added, playing on his bashfulness and watching his ears turn a bright shade of magenta. She felt her own face blush as well as she figured how forward she was being with him. But after being alone for so long, not being able to rely on anyone except herself, to be back and re-united with the one she loved felt like a cure-for-all. And she never wanted to lose him again.

"I love you" she smiled and squeezed his arm, making his hands pull away from his face and his beautiful green eyes met hers.

"I love you too…"


	38. Chapter 39: When Two Become One

*****Warning! ADULT CONTENT BELOW!*****

* * *

After two days spent in the infirmary, Maya was discharged with almost perfect health. She still had some healing to do, mostly the burns that she suffered and some bruises from the broken bones, but otherwise she was feeling back to her usual self. As expected, she received a lot of visitors. Boone was her very first visitor, then McNamara, Ibsen, and even Ramos and Irvine came by even though they had to take a four-hour flight to get to her. She was touched by their concern, and was overwhelmingly happy to see them all again, so much so she had to fight back tears and spent the whole day in a joyous daze. With the treatment the doctors had given her, her bones had knitted well and there was almost no sight of the burns she suffered, except for a shiny patch of skin where it was still healing on her left arm. Her sides were still feeling a bit tender though. Dangling her feet over the edge of her bed, Maya got up slowly and decided that it was time to get out of her gown.

Just as she started getting dressed, a knock on the door made her jump.

"Come in!" she said, hurriedly pulling a clean t-shirt on.

Boone's head poked through, "Hey, what would you say to some – woah!" he exclaimed as Maya was in the middle of pulling on a pair of jeans, "I'm so sorry! I'll come back when you're dressed"

"No! Don't be silly, come in" she replied, "I'm already dressed. Besides, it's not the first time you've seen my legs" she winked, making him blush.

He walked in and closed the door quickly behind him, his ears burning and suddenly feeling very aware at how awkward he felt. "Erm, so uh… I hear you can leave the infirmary today"

"That's right" Maya replied, placing her hospital gown in the used clothing receptacle.

"I was just wondering if you, uh… Wanted to hang out for a bit" he asked, wringing his hands nervously as he walked up to her, "And if you're hungry, we could go and have an early lunch. They are serving this thing called French toast in the cafeteria".

Maya smiled and nodded, "I'd love to!".

"Great!" Boone grinned, offering her his arm. She obliged, placing a hand on the inside of his elbow and her other hand on his bicep. She had never seen this side to him before, but she loved how happy he looked, and it made her feel like she had butterflies in her stomach.

After their lunch, they took to exploring the facility a bit more, caught up with Daniel in the arboretum, and decided to make their way to the leisure and entertainment room as a way to wrap up their afternoon.

"Let's see what there is to do", she said, pulling Boone's arm to a bulletin board she spotted with a list of activities. "Look at this! They've got movie screenings!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"Oh, really?" Boone asked hesitantly, "What are they showing?"

Maya scanned the short list, "Well, there's a sci fi movie called 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', 'Godzilla', and 'The Time Machine'". Boone moved next to her to have a look as well.

"So… you just sit and watch a picture?" he asked confused, "That doesn't sound very entertaining".

"You've never seen a movie, have you?" Maya asked in shock.

He shook his head hesitantly, a slightly embarrassed expression crossing his face. Maya instantly regretted asking him.

 _'Of course, he has never been to a movie you idiot, he was born in an apocalyptic world'_ she swore at herself, feeling rather ashamed.

"Doesn't matter" she squeezed his hand, "They're all boring, and actually I'd rather spend some quality time with you" she leaned on him, about an inch shy from reaching his shoulder. He smiled and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to him.

"What would you like to do?" he asked, steering her away from the board and out of the room into the open hallway.

Maya thought for a couple of moments, until the answer struck her. "Well, considering everything we've been through, rest and relaxation actually sounds like heaven. Oh, and food!" she smiled.

Boone chuckled at her last remark, "We've just had food. If I remember correctly you had two full plates of French toast".

A pit in Maya's stomach started to form as she remembered surviving days without sustenance on her own, "Yeah… You come to appreciate the little things after being without for so long".

Boone knew the feeling all too well, and he pulled her in closer as they walked through the busy hallways, "Your place, or mine?" he asked coyly making her blush. They leisurely made their way back to Boone's temporary quarters in the Vault.

* * *

As the door closed behind them with a gentle hiss, he became very conscious of how alone they were. It made him nervous and thrilled at the same time. It was a while since they last had some privacy together.

Maya sat on the couch, wincing as she upset some of the bruises on her side while trying to get comfortable. Boone handed her a pillow and lifted her leg up to rest on his lap.

"Thank you" Maya sighed at his caring gesture, "this is the most comfortable I've felt in a long time". She gazed longingly at him, her eyes darting over all his features as she soaked in his presence. Her heart fluttered just from his touch.

Feeling a little self-conscious, Boone shifted in his seat, "What is it?"

Smiling, Maya shook her head, "Nothing, I… I'm so very glad to see you again" she said, taking his hand in hers, "It's been so long. To tell you the truth, there were moments where I never thought I'd see you again. And I'm so overwhelmingly elated just to feel your touch again".

Hearing those words from her, Boone couldn't control himself. He winced and had to look away as tears started flowing down his face.

"Hey" Maya whispered, squeezing his hand and pulling herself back up to sit close to him, "It's alright, we're here now, _together_ " she placed her hand on his wet cheek until he turned back to face her, eyes red and face contorted in grief.

"I thought I lost you" he gasped, "I couldn't… I wanted it to end. I was ready for it…"

His words made her reel. If anything had happened to him… If he had gone through with it….

She felt her eyes well up and hot tears stream down her face, "I'm here, and I'm not going _anywhere_ " she hugged him, feeling his arms wrap around her and squeeze her tight. They held each other, taking comfort in each other's presence until their breathing and tears calmed.

"Oh, look at me, I'm such a mess" Maya sniffed, pulling away slightly and wiping the wet patches of her face on her sleeve.

"No, you're so beautiful" Boone replied, leaning in and kissing her passionately, the way he wanted their first kiss to be.

Even in a sitting position, Maya felt her knees, no, her whole body go weak. She had never felt this sensation before, as though she were melting and the only one who could catch her and keep her whole was him. When he moved his lips away from hers and slowly proceeded to kiss her gently down her delicate jawline and neck, caressing her face with one hand while the other pressed on her lower back, it was almost too much! Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it was humming.

"Oh God..." she gasped, running her fingers through his short dark blonde hair, "What are you doing to me?"

"I'm sorry" he panted, pulling back a bit and feeling slightly embarrassed at how presumptuously he was behaving. He was never forward with women, and _never_ took such ungentlemanly leave of his senses; in truth, his behaviour shocked him, and he pulled back allowing Maya some space; a worried frown on his face.

To his surprise, his reaction made Maya more… interested!

She pushed him gently back on the couch and sat on his lap, straddling him with her thighs and pinning him down as she rested her upper body weight on his chest. He wasn't going to lie, this was the best he'd ever felt in his life, and he didn't want it to end.

"I didn't say stop" she answered with her intoxicating smile, leaning down to kiss him as he caressed her face. Breathing in his clean scent made her mind swim, as though a primal instinct had kicked in and all she could think about was him.

Pulling one hand away from his chest, she slowly moved it down his abdomen, tracing his muscular features under the fabric. But that wasn't enough. The more she felt, the more she yearned to find out what was hiding underneath. Sitting back in an upright position, both breathless with desire and gazing lustfully at each other, Boone was completely under her control. Slipping her hands underneath his shirt, Boone gasped as she took his t-shirt off and admired him from her seat of power. Several areas caught her attention and she lightly traced her fingers over them, while Boone's alluringly rippled abdomen rose and fell with every breath. The first was a long diagonal scar on his left flank, second was what appeared to be a scar from a bullet wound on his abdomen, third was the cut he suffered on his arm that had healed to form a fresh scar in the skirmish with the assassin on the ridge after the destruction of McNamara's Brotherhood base in Hidden valley.

He looked up at her expectantly, worried that she would take offence with his battle wounds, "You alright?" he asked.

Maya smiled, "I've never felt this good in my entire life".

Boone placed his hands on her hips, running one of them under her shirt and making her sigh with pleasure. "We haven't even started yet" he replied teasingly as he slowly sat back up and took Maya's t-shirt off as well, exposing her ample breasts.

Maya felt her body start to shiver, not from the cold, but from the surge of desire that was flowing through her body like uncontrollable wildfire. She wanted everything right then and there, but also wanted it to last forever. She felt something stir in Boone as well, a hot and hard pressure between her legs. The sensation made her gasp as she pulled back just enough to see what was going on. Letting her have a bit of a look, Boone smile and cupped her breasts, kissing and sucking on her nipples to distract her from her fascination, relishing in her moaning as he ran his hands down her front and started undoing her jeans. Grabbing her buttocks, a cheek in each hand, he expertly spinned her around and onto her back on the couch. Slowly, he peeled back her jeans, revealing just enough to see that she wasn't wearing any underwear which made him even more eager to simply rip them off.

Slowly and teasingly, he pulled her jeans off, stroking and kissing her inner thigh, knees, calves, and ankles as he did so, making Maya gasp, shiver and squirm with pleasure.

"Craig… I can't…" she moaned, shaking her head, "I'm not going to last".

Hearing her say that made him even more eager to take his time. Spreading her legs slowly, he started kissing her gently just below her belly button, moving down to her lips, tantalising her with his lips and tongue and savouring the taste of her.

Maya moaned, grabbing his wrist and trying to wriggle free so that the experience may last longer, but Boone pulled her hips up and wrapped his arms around her legs, adamant in his mission to make her feel the best pleasure in her life. His tongue moving backwards and forwards rapidly made her scream in ecstasy, arching her back upwards as she experienced a powerful climax.

Boone set her back down on the couch slowly, captivated in watching her twitch from the after effects.

"Oh God, I want you so much" he panted as he moved between her legs and leaned in to kiss her passionately.

Maya nodded, "I want you too" she replied, biting her lower lip as she unbuttoned his trousers and took him in her hand, making him sigh with pleasure.

Boone let himself be guided by her, following her every command.

"I've never done this before" she sighed, eager to feel all of him but also apprehensively hesitant.

Boone nodded, "We don't have to if you're not ready" he kissed her.

"No, I want you more than anything, but… I'm worried…" she gazed at him, finding comfort in his green eyes.

"I would never do anything to hurt you" he said, caressing her cheek with his hand.

Maya nodded and kissed him passionately, guiding him in slowly with a gasp as she felt every bit of him reach inside her, as two people became one.

"Craig, oh my God…" she gasped, wrapping her legs around his hips.

Every fibre in Boone's body felt like it was burning with nothing but desire, and for the first time since he could remember, he never felt so happy to be alive. Moving gently so as not to cause her pain, Boone's muscles were beginning to twitch and shiver; it took all his willpower not to lose control. He stopped for a moment, gasping for air as beads of sweat started to form on his skin, slowly rolling down his body.

"I won't last much longer" he groaned, pulling away to stop himself from losing control, "I don't want to hurt you".

Unexpectedly, Maya reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You won't" she whispered into his ear, pulling him back in, and suddenly Boone's primal instincts kicked in. He pressed his body onto hers, wrapping one arm around her and the other around her inner thigh, lifting her leg up, an explosion like fireworks going off in his brain as his deepest desire for his beloved was unleashed.

They lay in each other's arms, both bodies still twitching in pleasure from their exquisite merging, kissing and caressing each other until they felt sleep take them.

 _It was true what they said about falling in love, all of it. And it all started with a smile…_


	39. Chapter 40: Of Things To Come

Although the gently increasing alarm on Maya's PipBoy was becoming a nuisance, she had no desire to get up and out of bed. Unfortunately, she had no choice…

"Mmmph…no…" she mumbled in protest, arm outstretched like a tentacle trying to find its way to the noisemaker. Disabling the beeping with a tap, she twisted around and wrapped her arm around Boone, who was snoring lightly on his back, his beret covering part of his face.

Maya smiled remembering the events from the previous night. Especially the fourth one.

 _'Is that where the beret came into play?'_ she wondered, trying to piece together everything. Although they hardly drank a sip of alcohol last night, Maya felt like she was wasted. The good kind of wasted though, as if she were still a tad tipsy and her head was floating in the clouds. She smiled, giving Boone a soft kiss on the cheek before sitting up and getting out of bed.

"Ooh, ow" she tried to muffle a groan. Her legs were feeling particularly crampy and sore, especially her hips and thighs…and other parts of her body that normally never felt a twinge in over 400 years were feeling very sore. Though quiet, her complaining roused the ever-perceptive Boone from his slumber.

"What is it?" he murmured, shifting closer to her under the covers.

"Nothing" Maya re-assured him, smiling as she realised why she was feeling this way, "Just sore".

She felt an arm reach up and grab hold of a chunk of the back of her thigh just below her left buttock. She chortled, realising what he was aiming for.

"I think you missed your target there soldier" she grinned, shuffling back slightly so that his hand could reach its destination.

"Mmm…", he sighed deeply, opening one eye and peeking under his beret to admire the view, squeezing her cheek which made Maya giggle as she tried to pull on her jeans. "Leaving me already?"

"I gotta give Daniel a final update on the mission before he closes the files", she answered, picking up her PipBoy and securing it on her arm. "And I'm never leaving you. At least, not in _that_ way" she leaned in, giving him a sweet kiss.

Boone wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her in close to him. "Round five when you get back?" he teased, lightly running his fingers through her short hair.

"Really?" Maya exclaimed in surprise, feeling a tingling between her legs in response to his suggestion, "I'm surprised we made it to four, aren't you…you know… tender?".

Boone grinned, shaking his head, "Not tender enough". His forward comment made Maya laugh as she reluctantly pulled away from him and finished getting dressed.

"Alright, if you're sure you're up for it" she said, pulling on her boots, "But only if you wear that sexy red beret of yours"

Boone winked, and Maya left his quarters with a beaming grin on her red face.

* * *

Daniel looked over the data Maya had transferred to his terminal, a deep frown setting in on his temple.

"Careful, you'll get more wrinkles" Maya teased, trying to lighten his mood. She was fiddling with a Canadian dollar coin from her universe between her fingers, watching his expression get more concerned with every line of text he read from the other side of the table.

With a grunt, Daniel pushed back from his desk, "I take it you didn't read the incoming data?" he asked in a somewhat scolding tone.

"I took care of it", she shrugged, unfazed.

"Yes, I can _see_ that" Daniel ran his fingers through his greying hair in frustration, "By ploughing through the edge of Boomer territory".

Maya shrugged again, "I found a space laser!" she answered in a slightly higher pitched voice, "What else was I supposed to do? Not test it when the right time presented itself?"

Daniel glowered at her blankly, "Yes… What part of 'space laser' doesn't make you feel nervous".

"I read the instructions", Maya protested, "Point and click, simple. _Aaaand_ …. _We_ now have a space laser" she leaned in, giving Daniel a wink.

Daniel blinked.

"Oh come on Danny!" Maya retorted, "No one was hurt. Well, except for the Legionaries".

"You fired a laser weapon over Boomer territory Maya!" Daniel was beginning to lose his calm, "Need I remind you that they have enough ordnance in their possession to turn the Mojave into a crater?"

"Well when you put it _that_ way, of course it sounds bad", Maya stood up, stretching her sore arms and legs. "What are you going to do? Put it in a glass box and admire it from your security camera feed?" she joked.

Daniel frowned and closed the files on his computer, "I have yet to decide. For now, we will find out as much information about it as we can". Picking up several files on his desk, he stood up as well and they both walked out of his office, making their way to the storage vault.

"I'm surprised at you" Daniel added, a smirk on his face.

"What? An old lady can't have a bit of fun?" Maya joked.

"I think the word you were looking for is ancient", he retorted playfully, "And isn't he a little young for you?"

"What are you talking about?" Maya asked slightly nervous. She felt her face begin to turn a bright shade of red.

"Craig Boone", Daniel answered with a knowing smile.

"How the hell do you know?" she hissed under her breath.

"You just told me" he winked, stopping in the middle of the empty hallway and placing a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to tease. I'm very happy for you two" he smiled, "At least now I know I should have gone into the military to get your attention and not become one of the Vault-Tec Founders".

Maya inhaled sharply, remembering the conversation they had when she returned to the Fallout universe, "You're gonna hold that over my head forever, now, aren't you?"

Daniel shook his head, "Nah, only the next couple hundred years".

They deposited the gun in a secure containment unit in the vault, marking it in the registry for further testing. Maya was also able to access her storage locker and collect her belongings that she brought with her from her universe. She had a large duffle bag full of clothing and tech, including her mp3 player and smart phone, which she planned on adding in some way into her very own, brand new Pip-Boy. She was pretty sure there were at least two dresses in there that would fit Veronica. The thought of seeing her again after so long put a smile on her face.

"Hey Danny, you still got that framework for that Pip-Boy I was working on?" she asked, zipping up her bag.

"Sure, here" Daniel went over to his locker and procured what appeared to be two thin rings spaced about six inches away from each other, connected with a flexible semi-transparent tapering tube, with snaking circuitry embedded in the material, that looked the right width for Maya's arm. "Going to finish it this time?" he asked curiously.

Maya nodded, thanking him for keeping her stuff safe and sound.

"Anything else to discuss?" she asked, looking up at Daniel.

"Hmm, well… I'd say we pretty much went over all the details, and the Legionary crisis in Boomer territory has been averted. The NCR has issued a stand-down for their troops, you've extracted all the information we need from Vault-Tec headquarters to finish cleaning up their mess, and… ah yes, the FEV compounds up top have now been completely destroyed" Daniel smiled optimistically, "I'd say we're in a prime position to help re-build a better world".

Maya nodded, "That's good to hear. I'm glad that, in the end, crisis was averted. It was close for a while. Though, part of me would have liked to have seen the Founding Fathers get a taste of their own medicine and suffer forever as machine human hybrids, unable to move or do anything other than rot underground". She was referring to the containers of potent FEV that they had found on the top floor of Daniel's Vault that were created in case of doomsday scenario to wipe out the Founding Fathers.

Daniel nodded in agreement, not keen on thinking about what could have happened had Maya been unable to stop the FEV launch.

"Shall we?" he motioned towards the door.

"Sure" Maya swung her bag over her shoulder and her unfinished PipBoy in the other hand. Catching a glint of a familiar shape in the corner of the room encased in a protective cover, Maya remembered Lanius and her encounter with him. "Say, whatever happened to him?" she motioned to the gold mask.

Daniel considered her question for a moment, "Last we heard of him from our informants he was still with the Hidebark tribe. That was over six years ago. Why?"

Maya sighed in relief, "So it worked…"

"Yes. I don't know what you said to him, but he left soon after Caesar pronounced him Legate", Daniel shook his head in confusion.

"I just reminded him what he would lose if he pursued down that path" Maya replied.

* * *

Ramos slammed his hand down on the table in one of the break rooms in Daniel's vault, revealing a King card and swiping all the caps

"Son of a bitch!" Irvine tossed his cards on the table, frustrated with his misfortune, "That's the fifth time today". Ibsen looked equally displeased but kept his composure.

"Give up?" Ramos joshed, happy with the growing mound of caps in front of him. He was always happy to brag a little after winning a hand at caravan.

"I'm out" Ibsen placed his cards away, picking up his empty bottle of Sunset Sarsparilla, "Anyone want a drink?"

"Yeah" Irvine scowled at Ramos.

"Lucky for you, drinks here are free" Ramos chuckled, hoarding his caps away into a pouch. Irvine waved his jibe away and went off with Ibsen to grab a cold beer from the fridge.

Catching a glimpse of Boone looking slightly lost in the hallway, Ramos called out to him and invited him over to join.

"Thanks" Boone nodded, taking a seat opposite him, "Though I don't play caravan".

"Drink?" Irvine asked him from across the room, holding up a cold beer.

"Sure" Boone nodded, leaning his elbows on the table, "Where's McNamara?"

"Our Elder had to get back to our new Brotherhood base to help with some urgent matters", Ramos answered, "Daniel has kindly offered to lend us to help of their Liberty Prime to get rid of the last of the Legionaries in the Mojave. He should call in within the week to give you an update".

"Good", Boone answered smugly, the corner of his lips creeping into a grin as he pictures Legionary dogs being crushed by the gigantic robot.

The four of them sat together for a while and caught up over a beer while the base buzzed with busy people all around them.

"So, what do you think will happen now that our mission is over?" Ramos asked.

"I always assumed that things would go back to the status quo" Ibsen replied with a faraway expression, "I never thought things would have turned out the way they did".

Irvine nodded, "Yeah. Kinda feels like it's not over yet, you know?"

"What's the deal with Maya?" Ramos asked, "Is she staying? What happened to her after our little incident with the Jerry spy"

"Johnathan" Ibsen corrected him.

"Whatever", Ramos squinted disapprovingly at being corrected, "I mean, you said she was back, right?" he pointed his half empty bottle at Ibsen.

"Yes, she was" Ibsen nodded, "But I don't know anything else. Obviously she came back, but when? That's the question". He thought pensively for a moment, then remembered the data Maya dumped on his PipBoy. "Boone, did you get a chance to go over the messages she recorded? Maybe there's some answers there?"

Boone shook his head, "No… I just listened to her last message", he answered, taking a swig of beer.

"Really? Aren't you curious to know what the other messages she had recorded for you were about?" Ibsen asked.

Truth was, Boone hadn't given it much thought. After thinking Maya had died in the Vault, all he wanted to do was listen to her last message, and when they found out she was alive…well…

Boone blushed, "No".

Ibsen sighed, "Well, even so, I've transferred all the messages addressed to you onto this memory disk" he procured what looked like a small portable hard drive. "If you ever find out, and if it's okay with Maya, let us know, will you?"

Boone nodded, finishing off the rest of his beer, "Sure".

"Say, where was Maya yesterday? We wanted a chance to catch up" Ibsen asked.

"Uh…." Boone blushed. Being a terrible liar, he didn't really know how to respond, "We, uh, went to catch a movie" he stammered.

"Ah!" Ramos was catching on, picking up on Boone's almost fluorescent ears, "Which movie?" he tested.

Boone shook his head, "God…something".

"Godzilla?" Ramos asked, "What's it about?"

 _'Crap'_ thought Boone as he stared intimidatingly at Ramos' smug face.

"Maya!" Irvine exclaimed getting out of his seat and pulling an extra chair for her, "Come join us. We were just talking about you".

"Oh? Do tell" she smiled, though after catching a glimpse of Boone's red face and uncomfortable expression she wondered whether their secret was out.

"Boone was telling us that you two went to see a picture yesterday", Ramos said getting out of his seat and grabbing a drink for the two of them.

"Ah… yes" Maya replied, watching Boone mouth Godzilla. "Godzilla! My… favourite monster movie" she lied.

"We were hoping to catch up with you before we head back" Ibsen interjected, "I…we were wondering if you could tell us what happened after the incident where we lost you".

Maya shifted in her seat, the unpleasant memories of being a subject of intense experimentation flooding back to her.

"It's a long story…" she replied, "When do you leave?"

"Due to depart at 0400" Irvine answered, looking up the time on Ibsen's PipBoy.

 _'Well, got some time... may as well tell them'_ Maya thought, and she began to recount her story from the moment she got back to her own universe, how she was taken away, imprisoned and tested for decades and treated with suspicion.

"It wasn't exactly the 'welcome home' moment I thought I would be granted. Also, due to the nature of my disappearance and the Morse code that was recorded from your attempts to contact your past, the US military decided to intervene and took over all investigation. So, when I _finally_ got back, instead of being allowed to go home and move on with everything, I was taken away for 'analysis'" she said, her eyes squinting as she tried to collate the memories into a coherent order, "I've lost count on how many tests they ran on me. Eventually, after almost 20 years of persistence, Daniel…well, the Daniel from my Universe, was given permission to see me. After he found out about what they did to me, he realised that I would never be safe or free in our universe ever again, so... he found a way to get me out and back here".

"How?" Ramos asked, his gaze transfixed on her.

"He used some connections from my past" Maya replied, "In truth, I'll never know what strings he had to pull to get me out, but… He did. I have vague memories of the events before I got back here. I remember it was a rush to get me back to the collider. Daniel from this universe had recorded messages for Danny, including schematics and information on how to get me back, should the need arise. I remember being back in the lab, Danny initiating the equipment, and then... I was thrown back here…though not in the right time".

Ibsen shook his head, confused, "What do you mean?"

Maya sighed, "I got back to this universe, but not when I was supposed to; I found myself in 2018, almost 60 years before the Great War".

"You got to see everything the way it was before the bombs?" Ibsen exclaimed in excitement, "What was it like?"

Maya smiled, "A little bit like in my world; but also, very different". She recounted her first weeks and months there, how she tried to warn people of the upcoming nuclear war and the fallout, but that nobody believed her and laughed at her warnings, pronouncing her mentally unstable and locking her up in an institution.

"So… that's why you couldn't prevent it", Ibsen added.

"Yeah. Those were the worst 59 years of my life" Maya nodded, a forlorn look in her eyes, "Because when they figured out that my cells weren't aging, I was subjected to even more tests and experimentation. Finally, when Vault-Tec was founded, they caught wind of my existence. And they _had_ to have me… I became subject B-51 to them, and the day the bombs dropped was the best day of my life" she sighed, "The facility I was in was almost completely destroyed and I managed to escape through all the rubble. I was finally free… After that, all I could do was try to survive, one day at a time".

Irvine shook his head, a desolate expression crossing his face, "I can't imagine…" he started, but words failed him.

"Sometimes I can't either", Maya nodded, downing the rest of her beer, "Who's up for some dinner?"

Everyone agreed to have a final dinner together as a group, eager to keep Maya company after hearing such distressing information of the events that unfolded in her life and feeling a new founded awe for her.

* * *

Boone held Maya's hand in his as they walked quietly down the hallways and back inside his quarters, feeling immensely gratified that they all got a chance to have a good time with the others before they went back to the Mojave. Despite their differences, they had all come together and become much more than a team…

"Hey, so, I was thinking…" Boone began, "Now that you're here to stay, you got any plans for the future?"

"Hmm… Dunno" Maya answered truthfully, kicking off her boots and taking a seat at the small dining table in the corner of the room, "Spent so much time just trying to stay alive and thinking about the mission. Now that it's over… I'm not sure what to do".

Boone took the seat next to her, resting his back on the cool wall behind him, "I know how that feels" he exhaled.

After a few moments of silent contemplation, Maya realised that, really, there was nothing keeping her in Daniel's Vault. "What do you want to do?"

His gaze caught hers and he lovingly took hold of her hand, "Whatever I do… Wherever I go, I want us to be together".

Maya gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "Surely there must be something" she searched his face for the answer.

Boone grinned knowingly, "I know what I'd like to do right now" he leaned in close to her.

"Oh? And…what would that be?" Maya feigned ignorance.

"You" …


	40. Chapter 41: Full Circle

Propping himself on one elbow, Boone lay next to Maya and lightly ran his fingers over her forehead and hair, admiring everything about her. She was peacefully asleep, wearing nothing but a pair of underwear, her head tilted to one side, a hand lightly resting on her stomach while her chest rose and fell with each soft breath. He couldn't believe how lucky he was, it was almost unreal. Part of Boone was afraid of feeling this way. Life and experience had taught him to expect the worst, especially when good things happened to him. He had lost everyone he cared about and loved in his life: his parents, Manny, Carla… and it could happen again. It _almost_ happened again. But, maybe…

 _'Maybe my luck is turning around',_ he thought, trying to be optimistic, _'Maybe this time it'll be different'_. For so long he had been living with the burden of what he did at Bitter Springs, and for many years he was certain that death would take his life as punishment for his actions. Then the Courier ran into him, and he embarked on a journey with her that he never thought would take him back to the NCR to play a pivotal role in the second battle for the Dam. Maybe with that action he made up for his failings at Bitter Springs… Maybe that was his purpose now.

Shaking his head to try to stop himself from overthinking everything, he sat up on the edge of the bed and ran his fingers through his hair, which was now almost an inch long. He considered taking the clippers and buzzing it all off, but that would definitely wake Maya up. As quietly as he could, Boone got up and out of bed, feeling a bit overwhelmed. Even though it was just gone 1AM, sleep was eluding him. Putting on his combat trousers, he noticed an object weighing down one of his pockets. When he reached in he realised what it was: the data drive Ibsen had given him with all of Maya's messages recorded onto it. There was a computer terminal in his room, but he dared not use it, especially if these messages were audio recordings. After a moment he remembered that there were a few free to use terminals in the break out spaces. Pulling on his boots and a shirt, he lightly kissed Maya on the forehead and pulled the bed covers over her to keep her warm before he made his way out.

Even though it was late, the Vault was buzzing with activity, but Boone was able to find a quiet spot with a terminal with no one around. He loaded up the drive and a series of numbers, all dates, popped up on the screen.

"Wow", Boone exclaimed under his breath, scrolling down to see how many entries there were. The dates spanned from when Maya got back to her universe, 22nd of September 2017, until August 30th 2291. He decided to start at the beginning.

 _22_ _nd_ _September 2017_

Oh God…What the hell happened?!...Did it work? … No it doesn't feel right, doesn't feel right… What happened...?

 ***static***

Craig...? Daniel…?

 ***static***

Where is everyone?

 ***ALARMS BLARING***

What the fuck is going on?!

 *****Storming footsteps*****

 ***Explosion***

Unknown male voice: _Get down on the ground! NOW!_

 *****Screaming*****

 *****Thud*****

The first entry made Boone's blood run cold. Without a video feed he didn't know what happened, who attacked her, and what was going on. He hesitated before he played the second entry.

 _25_ _th_ _September 2017, 10:17 AM_

I just realised that… I had accidentally recorded myself when I came through. **_*sigh*._** I think I will start a voice log of everything, maybe that'll help get everything straight in my mind. Well… I _am_ back. That's certain… Caught up with Daniel. Everything's different since I disappeared. Security is tight, after what happened to me the US government got involved and they appointed the military to oversee all operations. They went over the equipment logs and determined that it was indeed Morse code… It was McNamara's message…. Strange to think about the other side…

Erm… Where was I...? Oh, yes, as soon as I got through the new security systems they put into place detected anomalous readings and the alarm activated. I was knocked out by the military guards… They did a good number on my head. Needed ten stitches, as well as needing stitches for my previous head injury…

 ***static***

 *****muffled sniffing*****

I can't believe I'm here… I can't believe I'm saying this but…. I wanna go back

 ***shuffling***

Male voice: M _aya, you okay?_

 ***shuffling, muffled sounds***

 ***static***

 _26_ _th_ _September 2017, 01:52 AM_

Daniel interrupted me before, so I didn't get a chance to finish my thoughts. I can't stop thinking about what happened. Everything! My mind, it's… always buzzing. I can't sleep. I got interrogated for over 48 hours after the guards knocked me out. The only reason I'm out and not in some boxed room is because of my father's connections. One of his long-time friends recognised me… Well… Recognised my name. He came to see me… Soon as he did he got the permission to get me out of that cell. Guess it pays to be a three star general. *sigh*. I don't know what I'm going to do… Daniel hasn't left my side, he's afraid I'll disappear again.

 ***static***

I guess if I can't sleep I may as well read through the files Daniel left for me on my PipBoy.

 _28_ _th_ _September 2017_

Well, I read through some of the files. Started from the beginning, don't think I made it even a quarter of the way through. Bad news: no matter what I do in this universe, I can't stop the bombs. Why? Because I'm in the wrong fucking universe. Yep, would have thought he of all people would have told me that important detail. I still don't understand why he chose to withhold information from me, his explanation is bare and lacking, but… I found out some interesting information about myself… or at least the me in the other universe. My… her… future great great grand kid, is Elder Lyons, the Elder who started up the Lyons Pride Brotherhood of Steel faction. Makes me wonder, if things here happen the same way as they did on the other side, if my future family would end up the same. To be honest, I don't really wanna find out… It doesn't have a happy ending.

Now some good news: Daniel _did_ provide information about how to get back, if I did choose to do so. It's complex, and would require extreme precision and modification to the equipment we've got… But I think it could be done. I've been thinking more and more about returning. After everything I've been through, this side of the verse doesn't feel real anymore. There's no one besides Daniel that I can talk to about this either, and even he doesn't seem to fully understand everything. ***sigh*.**

 *****shuffling*****

I must go back… I dunno how, or when, but I _will_ go back.

 ***static***

After that last log there was a significant gap between the dates. The next one wasn't entered in over a decade after.

 _5_ _th_ _April 2034_

Maya: We're in the lab. Daniel is getting the equipment ready. He found the notes his other self left to him and figured it out! He can send me back!

Daniel's voice: Quick, get in. We don't have a lot of time before the security feed refreshes

Maya: Okay, are you certain about the number?

Daniel: Yes! Get in!

Maya: Okay… Okay

 ***whirring, humming***

 ***thud***

Okay… I'm putting on my re-breather!

 ***Thud***

 **…**

 **…**

 ***High pitched whining***

 ***Rumbling***

 ***static***

…

…

…

…

 ***Crack, hissing***

 ***muffled calls***

 ***crash***

Maya: Mph...

Daniel: Hey! Hey, are you alright?!

Unknown female voice: Oh my god… Dr. Hadden…?

Unknown male voice: We found a woman in the collider tube! Someone call an ambulance!

Unknown male voice 2: Is she breathing? Her eyes are open

Daniel: Jesus Christ… Maya? Maya! Wake up!

 *****slap*****

 *****gasping, coughing*****

Daniel: Oh thank God… What the hell Maya?! How did you get in there?!

Maya: Dan…Danny?

Unknown male voice: Ambulance is on the way. They'll be here any minute

Maya: Daniel! Listen to me!

 *****shuffling*****

I don't need an ambulance, just get me out of here

Daniel: Not a chance, you need to get looked at, you were in a vacuum with a test running, who knows how it affected you

Maya: No! Daniel!

 *****Footsteps rushing*****

Unknown male voice 3: What's the emergency sir?

Daniel: My friend, she had an accident, she's delirious. Please help us.

Maya: I am NOT delirious! Daniel LISTEN to me!

Unknown male voice 4: Ok just hold her steady and we'll sedate her

Maya: NO! NO!

 *****shuffling, muffled groans*****

Unknown male voice 4: That's it, go to sleep…

The last entry gave Boone goosebumps as he realised that Maya had recorded while she was in the collider and transported to his universe. He was curious to find out what happened next, but the next entry was at least 50 years after in 2077. Reading the date on the entry, he realised it was recorded only two days after the bombs were dropped. He felt a pit in his stomach and a cold shiver up his spine as he tried to imagine what that must have been like… To witness the end of civilisation.

 _25_ _th_ _October 2077_

It's day 2, after the bombs. I'm going to try to do an entry at least once a week, to keep a record of these moments for… *sigh*… The future, so we don't forget all that we've lost. Radiation outside is off the scale, I dare not poke my head up there. Managed to run for cover in the underground train tunnels. There's at least 30 people down here… So many of them children… I can't even look at them. I know what will happen to them… to the kids.

… My first taste of freedom and it's a breath of apocalyptic air. I don't know what I'm going to do…

 _28_ _th_ _October 2077_

Woke up to the sounds of hungry children. They've been sobbing and crying for the past three hours. The adults are restless, some of them haven't slept since the bombs. This won't end well.

 _29_ _th_ _October 2077_

Had a casualty today… Stephen… Section of tunnel caved in, crushed him. He was only 29… At least it was quick, he didn't suffer. I'm surprised everyone has lasted this long. I think I'm going to start a casualty report….

Oh, and we're out of water.

Casualty report: 1

 _30_ _th_ _October 2077, 05:10_

Some of the others, the adults, are planning on taking a trip topside. I didn't recommend it, but they… _we_ have no choice. We've been without water for over 24 hours. There was a clean water pipe down the tunnels in a janitor's office, but something must have blocked it, or it got severed. We'll get ready, cover up in as many layers of clothing as we can so the radioactive fallout doesn't touch our skin and irradiate us. We leave as soon as day breaks.

God, I hope we can find some on the surface. I don't know what to expect when we get up there, but… I can't just sit by and watch while we all die of thirst.

 _30_ _th_ _October 2077, 21:22_

We managed to find some water at a store nearby. Picked up some canned goods as well, as much as we could carry.

Topside is a wreck. Whole buildings demolished to rubble, as if they were made of cardboard, and roads… Whole swaths looked like they had melted into goo and re-solidified. I've never seen so much destruction. It's so quiet… That's what gets to you. The silence. There's no one out there. If there are, they've got more sense than us going to the surface.

Taylor, one of the guys here, said that there might be a vault somewhere around here, further down the tunnels.

I think that's just wishful thinking.

 _11_ _th_ _November 2077_

We're out of food… Again.

Casualty report: 9. 4 adults… 5 children…

Maya's other entries carried on in the same tone, describing the day to day events, their struggle for survival, and the aftereffects of the bombing. Every entry Boone listened to made him feel even more in awe of Maya and everything she had gone through. It made his experiences seem trivial in comparison. As he listened, he could feel the toll surviving was taking on her as Maya's entries became shorter, some subdued, others aggressive. He was listening to her change as a person. One entry left him fighting back tears as she revealed the last survivor during the bombing that she encountered, Taylor, had passed; leaving her all alone. After that, Maya's recordings started to change… They became more personable, as if she was talking to the PipBoy as an individual. Then, he realised, it wasn't the PipBoy she was talking to… It was him.

 _3_ _rd_ _July 2085_

I dreamt of you last night. You, and McNamara, Daniel…even Ramos was there…

I miss you… I'm so afraid I will forget what you look like…forget your face. But, I swear, you… the thoughts of you are what gets me through the day, every day since I got here. I just think I'm one day closer to seeing you again. It makes living in this hell worthwhile.

 ***sigh***

I love you too

Her last words made his heart break, and he had to take some time to regain composure before he carried on.

Most of the entries were a couple of days or weeks apart for a couple of years, until he reached the year 2092. Then entries seemed to stop. The next entry was recorded in 2099.

 _'I wonder what happened here'_ Boone thought, intrigued.

 _10_ _th_ _December 2099_

 ***panting***

Made it… Zion. Need to… find shelter for the night. Tired… Talk tomorrow.

 _11_ _th_ _December 2099_

Managed to find shelter in a cave. Damn thing is booby-trapped throughout though, so stayed near the entrance after I disarmed a couple of bear traps. I was so tired I just collapsed after that and slept until a little after dawn.

 _25_ _th_ _December 2099_

Managed to find all the booby-traps in the cave and disarm them. I now have three shotguns with plenty of rounds of ammo, a recharger pistol I found lying next to someone's remains, and plenty of supplies. Oh, I also found some whiskey in the cave.

Merry Christmas.

 _01 January 2100_

The last thing you want to happen on New Year's Day is to be attacked by fucking plant people. PLANT PEOPLE! Scared me shitless at gone 5AM. It was still very dark and I couldn't see anything, but I definitely heard them.

Fuck… I'm still shaking… Walk it off, walk it off.

 ***shuffling***

Not the best start to the year. Hope this is the worst of it, but something tells me there's more to come...

 _15_ _th_ _January 2100_

Found some edible plants! Some sort of weirdly shaped yucca, some mesquite, gourds and edible mushrooms! If I'm careful, I can harvest enough to eat without harming the plants, but I will need to think about growing my own crop. If I plant in early spring, I should have something before the end of the year.

Gonna have a feast tonight! Oh, what I wouldn't give for just a tablespoon of vegetable bouillon to go with it though…

 _3_ _rd_ _April 2100_

Trying to do a bit of exploring every day. I'm not venturing too far away from the safety of the cave, but this place beats the city. God… All those people… Their skin so mottled and blistered…. I think the radiation made them mad. This must be how feral ghouls came to be.

I planted some seeds today. Gourds mostly, and some yucca. Not sure if the yucca will take though… We'll see.

 _10_ _th_ _July 2100_

The plants are sprouting beautifully! Also found some supplies in an overturned military truck the other day. Think I managed to haul enough to last me a couple of months. Stashed the rest away in a secret spot by the river.

But the icing on the cake came when I was making my way back. Found another truck, and inside was a suit of T-45d power armour, almost brand new with the specialised body suit and all the trimmings. I think it was re-fitted and on its way to someone before the bombs fell. Some significant changes were made to the power systems though, going to check it over later today. I know it's not as advanced as the T-51b, but it'll do the job.

Finally some good luck!

 _23_ _rd_ _October 2100_

Some ferals managed to wander into Zion today. They spotted me, their bloodshot eyes fixed on me. Thankfully had my shotgun Lucky by my side. It never fails me, unlike the other two…

Had to put the ferals down. They would have ripped me to pieces if I didn't. I just tried not to think about the fact that… They were once people too.

Taking a moment today to remember all that was lost 23 years ago…

The day the whole world went away.

 _1_ _st_ _November 2100_

I found another cave! With a large cache of supplies! I think someone lived here once, not too long ago by the looks of it. Came across a computer terminal with several logs in it. Didn't dare read them…

 _12_ _th_ _December 2100_

I came across a set of tracks today about 7km from the mouth of my cave. Human tracks. Boot prints…

They looked fresh, maybe a day or so. Looks like whoever they were, they were headed up to higher ground. I will avoid and try to hide my own tracks as best I can. Don't know if they're friendly…

Wonder if it's my new landlord.

 ***muffled laughter***

 ***Static***

 _30_ _th_ _December 2100_

Almost another year….

Another year closer to you.

 _2_ _nd_ _February 2101_

 ***hysterical laughter***

Found some huge sheep today. They almost knocked my ass off a cliff. Broke my arm!

 ***hysterical laughter intensifies***

 ***static***

 _11_ _th_ _July 2101_

Arm has healed. It was a minor fracture, nothing serious. Still, I was so stupid to think I could make friends with the giant sheep. Found them a couple of months ago and been following them. Two adults, one male, one ewe and a kid. The radiation must have altered their DNA or something, caused mutations, because they're twice the size and height of a Clydesdale. Beautiful creatures, and smart… smarter than me.

Well I think I finally managed to get them used to my presence today. Was able to stand less than ten feet away from them and not have them freak out on me. Who knows, maybe one day.

Boone grinned, trying to picture Maya as a big horner tamer. It was rare for anyone to get out of an encounter with a wild big horner unscathed. Maya was lucky that she wasn't killed.

 _30_ _th_ _August 2101_

*sigh*… Ever since I left the city… Since I found Zion, I've been getting pieces of my memory… Memories of what they did to me. The sick, twisted experiments, the interrogations… The simulations they put me through…

You were there, they tried to use my memory of you against me. But I didn't fall for it. I didn't tell them anything. They hurt me whenever I didn't do what they wanted… They used you to hurt me. *sigh*.

 ***static***

I wish I could talk to you now. I miss you… It's been so long since I last saw and spoke with another human being. A decent human being. Taylor was the last person I talked to… Didn't mention anything about who I really am and where I came from. He wouldn't have understood, or worse… would have thought I was nuts. But I think he was getting suspicious after a while, he kept saying how he noticed I still looked the same. Well, I may not look it, but I feel old… Old and worn out. I just want to stop. Then, I think of you, and what you said to me… and it's what drives me forward. Every fibre in my being is telling me to carry on, take it a day at a time. I only hope that I am still the same person you grew to care for when... if we see each other again.

 ***static***

Heaving a sigh, Boone stopped playing back the recordings and shut the terminal off. Although the recordings did give him a glimpse into Maya's past, he didn't need to hear the rest; he knew what he wanted to do. Pocketing the memory drive, he made his way out into the hallway, a desperate feeling to see her again growing in his chest. He was feeling deeply guilty that he had left her all alone in bed, especially after finding out just how alone she had been. But before he went back to the room, there was something else he had to do first.

* * *

Daniel almost couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You're serious?" he asked, his eyes wide and speculative. When Boone confirmed, Daniel realised this was more serious than he had originally thought.

"W-wow…." He stuttered, trying to find the best vocabulary to express what he was thinking. "Have, uh, have you discussed this decision with Maya…thoroughly?"

Boone paused uncertainly; this was something he didn't want to mention to her, at least not until he knew if it would even be feasible. It was meant to be a surprise. "No", he replied, "This was my decision… I figure Maya has at least another 300 years, I'd like to be with her as long as I possibly can".

Daniel raised his eyebrows, "…At the very least… She has closer to 700 years by our estimates. And that's before she even starts to show signs of ageing".

It felt like the breath was knocked out of Boone, "W…what?" he asked confused, "But… she's going to outlive even you?"

"I'm afraid so" Daniel nodded, "Her cells were so oversaturated with chroniton radiation when she was in that chamber that her DNA doesn't degrade every time it replicates, like ours does. Even so, in your circumstance I believe we might be able to extend your lifespan, get you an additional…hmmm" he took out Boone's medical chart and studied the values for a moment before giving an estimate, "350…maybe 400 years give or take".

It was as if someone had doused him with sobering cold water, "I see…".

Noticing the disappointment in Boone's voice, Daniel felt his own heart sink. He knew very well what Maya had to go through to find Boone again, and he wanted to help as best he could.

"Look, we can manage about 400 with the improved serum treatments at present. I will keep at the research and maybe…maybe I can adapt a chamber to safely dose you with some chroniton radiation too", Daniel checked the medical chart again, "but it's not going to be easy, you're going to have to pay more attention to your health. We're going to have to treat you for prolonged radiation exposure, and you need to reduce your stress levels. The last physical we did there were signs of increased adrenaline in your blood work as well as a drop in white blood cell count. Stress is bad for your health and will only shorten your lifespan" Daniel said shaking his head. He stood up and began to make his way to the infirmary with Boone following close behind, "If we make a start today then it'll be better in the long run, so head up to the infirmary with me and we'll begin the procedure".

Boone was a bit apprehensive about all the tests that they were going to run and the prospect of what they would be injecting him with, but he was willing to do anything to gain some more time with Maya; and he had eventually come to trust Daniel.

As soon as they entered the infirmary, one of the doctors was already prepped and ready for them. He led Boon to a reclining seat with attached monitors.

"Just take a seat here, and we'll begin your radiation exposure treatment", the doctor said, busying himself at a monitor and preparing some sort of sensing equipment. He attached the sensors on Boone's head, chest, arms, and legs and prepared an IV bag filled with yellowish liquid. "This is a modified version of RadAway" he began, noticing Boone's fixation on the medication, "It will help with the radiation purge and has a pre-cursor to the serum we will administer to help restore your cells. The sensors I have attached to you will monitor the progress as well as emit low frequency vibrations to help distribute the treatment throughout your system".

Though the doctor's explanation was adequate to help Boone understand the procedure somewhat, it didn't eliminate his worries; but if he wanted to be around for Maya for at least half as long as Daniel was predicting her to live, then this was his best solution. He was going to do it.

"I'm ready" he nodded to the doctor, who administered the substance in a vein in his left arm and left him alone with Daniel.

Taking a look around, feeling slightly awkward, Boone wasn't certain what to expect. "Now what?" he asked as Daniel pulled up a chair to keep him company.

"We wait until all of the medication is in your system and to take effect", Daniel answered.

"How long will that take?"

Taking a glance at the bag, Daniel estimated roughly an hour.

 _'Great, what am I supposed to do for an hour?'_ Boone thought somewhat annoyed. It was unlikely that Maya would notice his absence as it was still very early in the morning. Still, he worried that she could wake and find him missing from their bed.

"So once this takes hold, you'll have plenty of time on your hands. Have you considered what you want to do?" Daniel prodded, trying to break the silence.

That was a good point, Boone hadn't actually given that fact much consideration. All he could really think about was being with Maya, following her wherever she took him.

"I dunno", he shrugged, staring at the ceiling, "Didn't really have a purpose before, except for killing Legionaries. Now that they're all gone…"

"I see", Daniel responded understandingly, "Well, if I'm correct, you're still a member of the NCR. Would you want to carry on serving?"

"I guess… Though I've served all my adult life", Boone answered thoughtfully. Although he knew that the NCR was stretched thin and that the goals of the higher ups were probably not as pure as they would have others believe, a part of Boone was still hooked with the ideals of the NCR. "Maybe it's time to explore other options".

"I don't doubt that there are still a lot of people out there that could use some help", said Daniel, "Your military training could be put to good use".

Boone sighed, "I'm not sure… Whatever happens, one thing I'm certain of is Maya. I'll do whatever she decides to do, try to be as useful to her as I can".

His answer didn't surprise Daniel, but it did make him feel content knowing that there was someone else who cared about Maya as much as he did.

* * *

 _9 AM_

After his treatment, Boone returned to his room to find Maya still sound asleep in the bed. She had moved to the edge of the bed, lying on her front with one arm dangling on the side, her short hair ruffled and messy. Seeing her again made him smile, and it was as if the rest of his life was laid out before him. He knew _exactly_ what he wanted to do. Taking off his boots, shirt and trousers, Boone stealthily slid under the covers next to her. He reached an arm around her waist and pulled her gently away from the edge of the bed, not wanting her to fall off. Maya protested lightly with a soft groan as he pulled her to his body, groggily blinking awake.

"Craig?" she sighed.

"Yeah" he kissed her, "You were going to fall off the bed".

"Mmm" she groaned softly in protest, "No I wasn't". She stretched her arms above her as Boone wrapped himself around her even more, burrowing his face in her neck and giving her a kiss.

"Hey, you remember you asked me what I want to do?", he said, watching her nod dozily.

"Hmm… I think you gave me a pretty good idea" she sighed, a wide grin on her face.

Boone blushed, remembering their intimate encounter not that long ago, "Well, that's part of it" he started. He considered his next words for a moment before continuing, giving Maya a bit more time to wake up. "I want to be by your side, for as long as I am alive", he took a deep breath and held it in for a moment, feeling butterflies growing in his stomach and a surge of anxious excitement swallowing him as he phrased his next words, "I wanna marry you, Maya. I want us to build a home together… build a future, side by side".

Maya's eyes widened with surprise, her drowsy mind finally realising what he was suggesting, "But… No", she shook her head. Her remark took Boone aback and he looked at her with a slighted expression. Noticing the hurt look in his eyes, she pulled herself up to be at eye level with him, "I don't mean 'no' as in I'm not interested. Of course I am! I want to be with you as well" she smiled happily, "But…don't you think it's too soon to think about those things? We've only just found each other, you may change your mind about me or –"

"No" Boone shook his head, "My mind is made up. I love you, and there's nothing that can change that. We don't have to do everything now, we can take our time. Do things right" he smiled, running his fingers through her soft hair, "So, Maya Lyons, if you'll have me, I'd like to marry you sometime".

Maya's lips crept into the biggest grin Boone had ever seen. She pounced on him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and buried her teary face in his neck.

"I'll take that as a yes" he chuckled, his words slightly muffled.

"Yeah" Maya squeaked between happy sobs, feeling utterly overwhelmed and gloriously happy at the thought of spending forever with the man she waited for, for so long…


	41. Chapter 42: The Best Is Yet To Come

_Summary:_

 _We pick up on Maya and Boone roughly 3 months after the last chapter. This is the final chapter in this story line, marking the conclusion of Fallout: New Age Wanderer; but for anyone that is interested, the adventures of Maya and Boone will continue in a new story titled Fallout: New Age_

* * *

 _*** Warning - Adult Content Below ***_

* * *

 _3 Months Later_

After spending some time with Daniel in his Vault in the Capitol getting the proper medical and psychological care needed to start on their recoveries, and Boone getting an improved serum treatment from Daniel so that the ageing of his cells would be slowed as much as they could, they both decided that they would venture back out into the Mojave and start helping people in the best ways they could. Maya decided to follow Boone to McCarren and try to get the airbase operational again. While Boone took command of the 1st NCR Recon team, Maya took on the role as chief engineer for the NCR in the Mojave.

They had obtained permission from Col. Hsu on setting up a temporary residence in a hotel block that was situated a couple hundred feet away from McCarran base so that they could have some privacy, but they first had a lot of clearing up to do so they had to bunk in one of the spare officer's rooms until they completed the work. This needed to be done as the previous occupants were mostly raiders and drug addicts, so living conditions were hazardous at best. Maya lost count of how many used needles, broken glass, traps, and just generally sharp detritus they had to clear out. Slowly but surely it was getting to a habitable condition. Some troopers were also dispatched to help them out as the space could also be used as housing for some officers.

They had been at it for over a week now and their hard work was beginning to show. It was starting to look like a reasonable place to live. All that was left was to bring in a new armour and weapons bench, some unsoiled furniture for the living room and they were set. Maya had repaired the kitchen working station so they could prepare food in the privacy of their own room instead of having to go back to the base for a meal multiple times a day. She had also restored power and most of the utilities to the block, which was highly appreciated by the McCarran troops. The McCarran residents didn't have much experience with repairs, so if anything needed repairs she was the go-to person for the job. This came in handy for Maya as she could charge a fee for her repair work at the camp and collect some caps to help with purchasing additional provisions and weapons on order to carry on their work in the Mojave. But today was her day off, and Maya took the time to busy herself making repairs and modifications to Boone's sniper rifle since he had to make a trip to Camp Golf before the week's end to train some new First Recon recruits. She wanted to surprise him with the new addition before he returned after work, but several of the components she was working with were not co-operating with her and she had just run out of time…

A gentle knock on the door behind Maya made her flinch.

"Hey, have you been in here all day?" Boone asked, leaning his shoulder on the archway, "It's almost 7, you haven't eaten anything today".

Maya inhaled deeply and realised that she was pushing herself too hard. Her eyes felt raw, as if she dunked them in sand. She rubbed them with both hands and stretched in her chair, arching her back until she heard two or three clicks.

"Yep, you're right… Not making much progress anyway".

"What are you doing?" Boone asked perplexed, but Maya shook her head.

"At the moment, not much. I just managed to repair your rifle, but I was hoping I could get this power cell integrated into the capacitor, so it can fire metal and energy bullets with the flip of a switch. It was meant to be a surprise…" she sighed, "And it'll kick ass…I just need another hour to finish".

Boone grinned at her sweet attempt, "It's perfect" he commented as he picked up his rifle, turning it over to admire her handiwork, "I appreciate you doing this Maya, but don't overburden yourself." He walked up behind her and leaned over her shoulder to examine her working environment. The smell of melting solder made him wrinkle his nose, "Breathing in these fumes can't be good for you. Come on" he gently slapped both hands on her shoulders, "Change of scenery - let's go have some dinner. That's an order".

Finally relenting, Maya got out of her seat and followed Boone into the kitchen. He had already prepared everything. "You know, technically, I outrank you" she grinned, pulling up a chair opposite him.

"In this house, under this roof, we are equals" he emphasised the last word as he placed a full plate of food on Maya's side. He towered well over a foot over her, "Well…at least we're equals in the responsibilities we share".

The last comment made Maya chuckle. "You're lucky I love you more than just for your looks", she quipped as she lovingly ran a finger down one of Boone's facial scars.

"You're lucky I love you no matter what" he retorted.

Maya nodded, impressed with his quick response, "Touché".

They both sat at the table eating devilled eggs and some re-heated refried beans from yesterday's meal.

"So, what's new at McCarren? Has Irvine fixed that damn Vertibird?" Maya asked between mouthfuls. She hadn't realised how hungry she was until she took a bite.

Boone shook his head, "I think that bird had its last flight when we crash landed on that last mission you sent us to collect equipment from your old stomping grounds at the University" he said, opening a bottle of Nuka Cola and taking a swig.

"Hmm…don't tell him that, you know how he gets about it", Maya raised an eyebrow, knowing very well how fond Irvine was of that flying monstrosity. "How's McNamara? I haven't seen him in a while".

"He sends his apologies for not visiting, but in his defence, he is busy running the new Brotherhood base. Got the extension up and running, now the bunker's twice the size it was originally. They finally have enough space for all those new recruits. You should come down sometime. McNamara would appreciate it", Boone finished up his meal and pushed his plate to the side, reaching across the table and taking Maya's small hand in his. "Now that you've thoroughly wasted almost all of Saturday away, what are your plans to make it up to me?"

Maya burst into laughter, "What?!"

"You've ignored me almost all day. I had to go socialise with Ramos…." he stared at Maya deadpan.

"Oh, you poor thing" Maya tried to sympathise, but couldn't help bursting into fits of giggles. She finished her meal and took the plates away. "I'm sorry I was trying to surprise you with the new mods. Is this why you're so talkative?" she asked.

"If you want I could revert to the old, quiet, suffering-in-silence First Recon Sniper that you fell in love with?" he said, half-jokingly.

"Come now, I was just pulling your leg" Maya apologised, wrapping her arms around him and kissing the back of his head, "I promise I'm all yours tomorrow".

"Tomorrow hmm?" Boone mused, "I can't wait that long", he stood up and turned around to hug her back. They held each other in silence for a few moments, feeling each other's heart beats.

A deep, satisfying, rumbling sigh escaped Boone's lungs as he held Maya in his arms, making her look up in curiosity.

"What?"

"Hmmm…. nothing" he looked down at her, a cheeky grin on his lips.

"Tell me" Maya insisted, giving his waist a squeeze, to which Boone responded by picking her up in his arms and carrying her into their bedroom, while she feigned resisting his advances.

"Craig, I gotta get back to work" she half protested.

"So do I" he grinned, laying her down on the bed. He began kissing her neck, moving down to her breasts and the small of her waist. He ran his hands up and down her thighs, making her moan.

"And what… work… do you have to do?" she asked between breaths, running her fingers down the back of his head and neck.

"The most important of all: making you happy" he sighed, pulling her close to him so that he was positioned between her legs, he proceeded to kiss Maya's lips passionately; slowly and gently introducing his tongue with hers.

A quivering sigh escaped her lips and he felt her body tremble with anticipation. He smiled and pulled away, kneeling in front of her with her legs wrapped around his hips. Winking at her, he knew what she wanted. Boone slowly removed his white shirt and let it slide off the bed and onto the floor, revealing his broad chest, muscular arms and rippling physique. There were several scars marking his torso, each one with a story of its own; the largest of which was on his left side where he got it from the explosion when the Legionary tracker found them in McNamara's safehouse. Keeping his trousers on for the time being, Boone moved in and leaned over her, resting his weight on one arm while caressing her face with the other. He felt her hand run down his back, around his side and down between his legs. He let out a soft sigh of desire as he felt her hand fumble for the zipper.

"Not yet…" he exhaled.

"But I want you" she whispered, nuzzling his neck.

"And I want you, but ladies first. I insist" he winked at her with a wide grin on his face. Maya could never say no to him.

His hands moved expertly to her thighs, removing her trousers and immediately proceeding to pay close attention to her intimate area. Using his mouth, tongue, and fingers, he licked and prodded and explored her lips and entrance, bringing her close to her limit; making sure she was ready for him.

Pulling back, he watched as she gently writhed in pleasure from his touch; just the sight of her in her current state aroused him to the point that he had to undo his trousers to relieve the pressure, making sure as he did so to carry on with Maya. Revealing his member caught Maya's attention instantly. She gave Boone a hungry, almost pleading look as her hand wandered between his legs, gently encouraging him to do what he was desperately trying to prolong. He tenderly distracted her hand, pinning it above her head with her other one so she couldn't do anything but lay back and enjoy herself while he teased her by kissing down her neck and caressing her with his free hand between her legs. And then, just as Maya's breathing deepened and intensified, he moved his hips forward and entered her, making her back arch and her toes curl forward. He let go of her hands so he could steady himself as he moved between her, he felt her hands move to his back; fingernails digging slightly into his skin and her climactic moaning giving him goosebumps. It was more than he could bear.

His muscles tensed up as he felt the sensations build within him, hastening his pace. As he reached the pinnacle and waves of pleasure washed over him, he wrapped his arms around Maya and rested his head on her chest, gasping for breath. They both held each other close, recovering from the intensity of their activity.

"Craig?" Maya said after she got her breath back.

"Mhm?"

"You're getting really good at your job" she smiled.

Boone chuckled, feeling her fingers run through his short hair and her lips shower him with kisses, "Darling, the best is yet to come".


End file.
